Could the No. 5 Indiana not play its starting quarterback, lose the game against Ohio State by a significant margin and get into the playoffs?
Well, that’s a tough question that only the College Football Playoff committee could answer.
Most would think an 11-1 Indiana team could get in, especially with a easy win over Nebraska, a team that beat top-20 Colorado, earlier in the season, but does that rely upon what happens on Saturday?
While those questions don’t have real answers for now, one could argue that Indiana’s best option is to bench its starting quarterback and eat the loss to avoid his being injured.
That’s at least the take that ESPN’s Joey Galloway had. His main point was that Florida State could’ve won a National Championship had Jordan Travis not been hurt late in the season. No one on Twitter/X was a fan of that suggestion as it would void fans a real top-five battle.
Here’s the full clip.
If we handled the sports media the way they do it in the NFL – Joey Galloway would be cut immediately for this take about Indiana pic.twitter.com/gAldsuARhT
— Will Compton (@_willcompton) November 20, 2024
Now, there hasn’t been any real discussion of this, just Galloway’s take. Rourke, who led the MAC in passing yards and passing touchdowns at Ohio in 2022, has played well this season and has a 21:4 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
On top of that, should Ohio State blow out Indiana and the Hoosiers not have a top-25 win to end the season, they might not get in, especially if they pulled off a move like this. Nonetheless, it was a take thrown out.
Just, for all parties, hopefully it won’t be one that Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti takes any real consideration of.
