Perhaps.
Football is such a different beast than basketball. It is really hard to take a non-conference loss (especially for a non-marquee team like IU) and remain in contention for the premier bowl games with only 11 or 12 games total on the schedule. Of course you want the necessary proving ground for your players to get ready for the big conference opponents, but you also want a situation in which you don't have to unveil the entire playbook before facing Illinois or Penn State. There's something to be said for facing fundamentally sound teams that you should be able to beat handily to give your players reps and experience in the flow of a game without threatening the whole season if you drop a game.
It's still a sport where prestige carries too much weight -- an Alabama, a Texas, an LSU can drop games and still be in the conversation, but if IU drops a non-conference game, they will be laughed out of the discussion.
We’ll have games against three teams in the top 10, with two of those coming on the road against teams currently in the top 4. That’s plenty tough to prove worthiness, in my opinion.