Curt Cignetti, as soon as once more, didn’t secure again. His staff used to be lower than two hours clear of kicking off its first School Soccer Playoff match, and the 63-year-old Indiana head schoolteacher sat in the course of the “College GameDay” poised and went proper on the skeptics.
“We don’t just beat Top 25 teams, we beat the s— out of them!” Cignetti mentioned, referencing that his groups had crushed Nebraska previous this 12 months and Coastal Carolina when he used to be at JMU. It used to be a rewind-the-TV while. As in, did he truly simply say that?! It additionally wasn’t true. The Huskers had fallen out of the ballot by way of the hour they performed the Hoosiers. Ohio Atmosphere used to be ranked, even though, and beat Indiana 38-15.
Cignetti’s bluster in the end fell flat. The Hoosiers have been whipped on the order of scrimmage Friday night time by way of Notre Dame. They have been two steps slower, and after they have been i’m sick 20-3 with 11 mins left within the match, Cignetti punted and coached like he used to be hoping to not get routed.
A damning stat about Cignetti’s staff this 12 months: In opposition to 11 unranked fighters, Indiana averaged 46 issues in step with match. In two video games towards ranked groups, Indiana averaged 16 issues and didn’t have a play games of 30 yards or longer.
For the reason that Hoosiers have been getting treated for a lot of the night time — they trailed 17-3 at halftime — the varsity soccer international had enough quantity of hour to vent. Some attempted to relitigate whether or not Indiana if truth be told belonged within the 12-team Playoff grassland.
Ole Leave out schoolteacher Lane Kiffin didn’t pass over his prospect to stir the pot, mocking Indiana and the choice committee.
Actually thrilling aggressive match @CFBPlayoff . Superb activity!!
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) December 21, 2024
However actually, no person who didn’t assemble the 12-team Playoff earned their approach into it. No matter occurs at the grassland over the then date received’t alternate the truth that the groups that didn’t get picked merely didn’t do plenty to get in.
Kiffin’s Ole Leave out staff? The Rebels misplaced 3 video games, together with one at house towards a severe Kentucky staff that didn’t win some other SEC match and completed 4-8. That loss on its own, coupled with the Rebels’ 28-10 house win over Georgia, wouldn’t have saved them out, however they’d two alternative losses towards unranked LSU and Florida.
Alabama? The Wave additionally beat Georgia, however they’d an embarrassing 24-3 beatdown by the hands of a mediocre Oklahoma staff in overdue November. Alabama additionally gave up 40 issues in a loss to 6-6 Vanderbilt and misplaced to Tennessee.
South Carolina? It were given blown out 27-3 by way of Ole Leave out at house, and it additionally misplaced to Alabama and unranked LSU. The Gamecocks do have a highway win over ACC champion Clemson, even though.
GO DEEPER
Rexrode: Indiana deserved its Playoff bid even though its time table helped it get there
Indiana went 11-1 within the usual season. The Hoosiers don’t have important wins on their resume. Now not one. However they did fritter away out nearly everyone they confronted. Best 7-5 Michigan, the staff that dissatisfied Ohio Atmosphere on the finish of the season, were given inside of two touchdowns of them till the Buckeyes. However Indiana performed who used to be on its time table. That time table did have the 2 groups that if truth be told performed for endmost season’s nationwide identify — the Wolverines and Washington — however either one of them needed to exchange their head coaches and maximum in their launch lineups. You play games who you play games, and it’s no longer IU’s fault how alternative groups became out in 2024.
When you don’t suppose Indiana deserved to assemble the Playoff, you’re announcing it had a one-game time table this autumn at Ohio Atmosphere, and as it misplaced that one match, not anything else it did mattered.
There’s deny hesitation a few of this complaint of the Hoosiers is rooted within the reality that they’ve nearly by no means been just right ahead of. As the published Friday night time many times famous, Indiana is the losingest program in faculty soccer historical past. However the Playoff is meant to imagine handiest what took place this 12 months, no longer the generation, even though it’s at all times been juiceless for human nature and the ones biases to not creep into the concept procedure.
Cignetti didn’t do himself any favors, both, when he mentioned ahead of he took the activity that he checked out Indiana’s suspect 2024 time table and were given extra fascinated with the Hoosiers’ training emptiness.
One fear as faculty soccer moved to a 12-team Playoff used to be that it will devalue the usual season. The TV rankings this autumn would point out that it hasn’t. But when the Playoff variety committee disregards wins and losses as it needs to simply walk by way of its personal sight check or what Vegas thinks about doable matchups or what NFL workforce crowd bring to mind a staff’s “talent,” it will devalue the usual season, and that’s no longer usefulness it for all the second-guessing and knee-jerk reactions because the revisionist historical past seeps into the discussion.
Be expecting extra of this if and when the Playoff expands to fourteen or 16 groups. That might simply cruel extra groups with much more unsuitable resumes gets in, and extra may also be sitting at house observing it.
GO DEEPER
There aren’t a bundle of firsts at Notre Dame. This used to be one in every of them
(Footage of Curt Cignetti and Lane Kiffin: Justin Casterline, Wes Hale / Getty Pictures)
