College Football Thread

[Demo]

Oregon thinks those unis are ugly.

[realTomCrean]

Minnesota and Wisconsin are my two teams I'm looking to overachieve compared to what the media and popular consensus say. I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say Wisconsin pushes ND in the 4Q (I'm going to alt. the line down to +14.5). ND lost so much in their Price and Love and the QB hype is just that. 

[Home Jersey]

16 minutes ago, realTomCrean said:

Minnesota and Wisconsin are my two teams I'm looking to overachieve compared to what the media and popular consensus say. I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say Wisconsin pushes ND in the 4Q (I'm going to alt. the line down to +14.5). ND lost so much in their Price and Love and the QB hype is just that. 

CJ Carr is a very legit QB.

ND is going to blow the doors off Wiscy IMO but I like the optimism. 

[realTomCrean]

30 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

CJ Carr is a very legit QB.

ND is going to blow the doors off Wiscy IMO but I like the optimism. 

I hope you're wrong but understand why you think that!

[realTomCrean]

Hoover got his two best friends the run game and defense. Carr lost one of his best friends + I'm a hater

[str8baller]

38 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

CJ Carr is a very legit QB.

ND is going to blow the doors off Wiscy IMO but I like the optimism. 

I agree on Carr. By the end of the year he looked like one of the best in the country. Also, I don’t think ND’s run game falls off that much. They recruit well and their Oline is one of the best in the country. 
 

I used to live up north and so generally pay attention to Wisky football, although i haven’t as much since I moved back. I think Fickell is a dead man walking. The AD is already gone. And they’re losing Olineman to us in the portal. They just don’t have a lot to hang their hat on. They had a tough schedule last year but even got housed by average teams. Playing IU close for a half was about as good as they played all year.   
 

 

[LIHoosier]

1 hour ago, Demo said:

Oregon thinks those unis are ugly.

Meanwhile on the opposite end...

 

[IUFootballHappyHappyJoyJoy]

On 8/14/2026 at 12:09 PM, Demo said:

Oregon thinks those unis are ugly.

Isn't College Station surrounded by forest and swamplands?

[Hovadipo]

Get f****d, grandpa. We are the best. 

[Stuhoo]

8 hours ago, Hovadipo said:

Get f****d, grandpa. We are the best. 

To be the best, join a conference.

[Magnanimous]

12 hours ago, Hovadipo said:

Get f****d, grandpa. We are the best. 

Notre Dame went 0-2 against CFP teams last year and then proceeded to beat up on “cupcake city.” Beating Syracuse 70-7 is a real resume statement game…In addition to ND’s 15 point victory over Boston College, they also let up 30 points to Purdue…

[cthomas]

I have borderline Purdue level dislike for the doomers. Their arrogance is insufferable.

[Brass Cannon]

3 minutes ago, cthomas said:

I have borderline Purdue level dislike for the doomers. Their arrogance is insufferable.

Same, at least Purdue fans are delusional. 
 

Cheering so hard for Wisconsin when they play Notre dame.  Do I think they will win, no.  Do I desperately want it. Yes 

[str8baller]

12 hours ago, Hovadipo said:

Get f****d, grandpa. We are the best. 

He started off strong, before going off the rails. 
 

I do think the atrocious non-con scheduling in both sports by more schools than just IU, really only hurts the fans. It’s just a money suck from them. We don’t play a good football game until October. Then football gets exciting in time for us to ignore half a dozen 300+ ranked cupcakes in basketball. 
 

Funnily enough when we stunk in football I was always adamant that we should play all cupcakes and the get two conf wins (hopefully) so we could consistently be bowl eligible. Of course, that didn’t stop Ball State or whomever from occasionally beating us. But now, I think we (the fans) could really use a good non-con game. OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, Bama, Texas, LSU, Clemson, etc… all play them. I’m *guessing* it’s in the works, but I don’t know.

[Brass Cannon]

17 minutes ago, str8baller said:

He started off strong, before going off the rails. 
 

I do think the atrocious non-con scheduling in both sports by more schools than just IU, really only hurts the fans. It’s just a money suck from them. We don’t play a good football game until October. Then football gets exciting in time for us to ignore half a dozen 300+ ranked cupcakes in basketball. 
 

Funnily enough when we stunk in football I was always adamant that we should play all cupcakes and the get two conf wins (hopefully) so we could consistently be bowl eligible. Of course, that didn’t stop Ball State or whomever from occasionally beating us. But now, I think we (the fans) could really use a good non-con game. OSU, Michigan, Wisconsin, Bama, Texas, LSU, Clemson, etc… all play them. I’m *guessing* it’s in the works, but I don’t know.

People seem to be forgetting that ND originally agreed to that game when it was a cupcake. They didn’t schedule us in 2021 expecting us to have made more expanded playoffs than them. They expected a team still chasing a bowl win after several decades 

[Pagoda]

IMO the polls and committee don’t incentivize big time non-cons enough.  The upside/downside is not too appealing.  Also the final committee ranking is still mainly correlated with record.  The correlation of rank and record was 0.7 last season which is obviously quite strong.

I’d like a better non-con too, but I’m fine supporting Cig’s philosophy that preps us for later in the season.  I think he will evolve as needed.

[Stuhoo]

Football is different than basketball.

The cupcake games allow us to play the starters four or five quarters less, thereby reducing injury risk by about ten percent.

And the cupcakes allow us to give substantial playing time to the second and third string, building depth and putting untested players in game situations.

[Brass Cannon]

Just now, Pagoda said:

IMO the polls and committee don’t incentivize big time non-cons enough.  The upside/downside is not too appealing.  Also the final committee ranking is still mainly correlated with record.  The correlation to rank and record was 0.7 last season which is obviously quite strong.

I’d like a better non-con too, but I’m fine supporting Cig’s philosophy that preps us for later in the season.

Honestly think we need to go to a playoff system where spots are allotted based on record in conference. 
 

The conferences with the prior years NC game competitors gets their top 4 teams in. 5 if from same conference.  Other P4 get 3 teams in. Thats 14 spots.  Leaving a spot for the next highest ranked P4 team(probably Notre Dame) and the top ranked Group of 5 team. 
 

Because it’s based on conference standing for the conference teams for the most part theres no downside to playing elite non conference opponents 
 

 

[Brass Cannon]

2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Football is different than basketball.

The cupcake games allow us to play the starters four or five quarters less, thereby reducing injury risk by about ten percent.

And the cupcakes allow us to give substantial playing time to the second and third string, building depth and putting untested players in game situations.

They also let us keep the playbook pretty bland.  There’s a decent chance that OSU won’t get to see much of our playbook if we do what we are supposed to do the first 6 weeks of the season. There’s only so much you can learn from your 15th Khobie Martin run up the middle as a defensive coordinator 

[DChoosier]

I do not like 3 total cupcakes (Howard-really?) but understand the rationale.  
 

We have some tough Big Ten games but think it is advantageous how they gradually “scale up” this season.  It might have been a bit of a challenge/shock to the system to go from 3 scrimmages (at best) to, as an example, OSU because of the lack of quality snaps vs decent opponents. Starting Big Ten with Northwestern at home and then @Rutgers is a perfect way to get ready for the meat of the schedule.