Paul Finebaum predicts Indiana will get beaten 'badly' by SEC team in College Football Playoff

Indiana faced a serious step up in competition on Saturday when the fifth-ranked Hoosiers traveled to take on No. 2 Ohio State. Indiana suffered a 38-15 loss, but thanks to plenty of other upsets over the weekend, IU is still in excellent shape to make the College Football Playoff.

ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum shared his thoughts on Indiana Monday morning on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. He acknowledged that the Hoosiers are likely to land a spot in the CFP, but he doesn’t expect much from them once they get there.

“They’re going to get in,” Paul Finebaum said. “I think a 3 o’clock Saturday Indiana was about as dead as you could be. But by midnight, they found themselves back. So I think all the arguing is over.”

After Indiana suffered a 23-point loss to Ohio State, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, BYU and Colorado all lost later in the day.

Because other teams who were behind the Hoosiers also lost, Finebaum believes Indiana is safe. With that said, he also feels that they will be blown out by an SEC team if that ends up being a first-round matchup.

“They’re going to get in, and now I can’t wait,” Finebaum said. “I just hope that they get to go to an SEC team’s home stadium on that Friday or Saturday night. And then I think we can find out what we already know, that the SEC team will beat them badly.”

For what it’s worth, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti dismissed the notion that his Hoosiers might be in trouble as far as the College Football Playoff, even before all of the craziness happened Saturday afternoon and Saturday night.

“Is that a serious question?” Cignetti said in his postgame press conference when asked if Indiana still deserves a spot in the playoff. “I’m not even gonna answer that one. The answer’s so obvious.”

Indiana became the story of college football this year after Cignetti came in from James Madison, taking an 11-0 record into Week 13. The Hoosiers were dominant, too, leading the nation in scoring offense ahead of their first big test against No. 2 Ohio State.