The most significant debate in college football over the last three weeks has always had to do with the No. 1 program in the country. The AP Poll favors Ohio State as the top team over the Indiana Hoosiers, sparking heavy debate among analysts and fans alike. Yet, many believe Ohio State is ranked higher than Indiana because the program won a national championship in 2024. However, according to college football insider and former Georgia player David Pollack, it’s the Indiana Hoosiers, and the case for them being No. 1 is not hard to justify.

On October 20, Pollack hopped onto his ‘See Ball, Get Ball’ podcast and began using pure logic and metrics to justify why the Indiana Hoosiers should be the number one team in the AP poll. Unsurprisingly, the Ohio State fans threw digital haymakers in response.

He said, “Indiana, the number one team in the country. Why is Indiana over Ohio State? Better win. The Oregon win is the most impressive win by far. The next most impressive win for both teams is Illinois. To me, Indiana is the number one team in the country. I know people don’t like that, but Indiana… that’s their highest ranking ever.” It’s not ridiculous to think Indiana should be the No. 1 squad over Ohio State right now.

Curt Cignetti has taken the Indiana Hoosiers to their highest level. The Hoosiers are ranked No. 2 in the AP, which is the highest in their program’s history. Within 15 months, Cignetti has transformed Indiana from a “basketball powerhouse” into a contender for college football supremacy. Statistically, the case is solid: Indiana ended Oregon’s 18-game home winning streak.

Indiana entered Week 8 ranked No. 1 in ESPN’s Strength of Record, which measures how difficult it would be for other top teams to match the same 7–0 record. According to ESPN, the average top-25 team would have only an 11% chance to match Indiana’s accomplishments against its schedule.

Pollack summed it up: “See ball, get ball, they’re at number one.” Unfortunately, Ohio State and Indiana will not play each other this season. The chances of a possible match in the playoffs are slim, as both are top-seeded programs.

Cignetti remains realistic about last season’s Ohio State loss. “You know, doing what we did, starting 10 and 0, didn’t trail till game nine, but, you know, we didn’t get it done against Ohio State and Notre Dame,” said Cignetti on Pat McAfee’s show. “I guess you could say we were competitive for a quarter and a half against Ohio State. We were up seven nothing, but we didn’t get it done.”

Although, Indiana Hoosiers had taken a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, Ohio State pulled away and won the game 38–15, showing the gap Indiana still needs to close. Cignetti called last year a tremendous year and said the lessons from games like Ohio State will help the team grow and improve moving forward. Kirk Herbstreit, too, got his opinions out there.

Kirk Herbstreit vouches for Indiana over OSU

On the October 13 episode of Nonstop, Kirk Herbstreit surprised fans by naming Indiana as his No. 1 team, while Joey Galloway kept Ohio State at the top. Herbstreit admitted, “My top five will probably shock you a little bit. Look what I did. And let me tell you why I did that.” He explained that he’d long been hesitant to give Indiana enough credit, saying, “I have relatives that are IU alums that hate me because I’ve not given Indiana enough love.”

But this season changed his mind. “I thought they were a good team last year,” he said. “I just thought they never really got an opportunity to prove it against a good opponent. When they did, they lost against Ohio State and Notre Dame.”

That all shifted after the Hoosiers’ 63–10 blowout win over Illinois, which Herbstreit called the turning point. “This year, I was excited to see how they’d play against Illinois… and they blew (by) Indiana.” According to ESPN, Indiana has the second-best chance of reaching the Big Ten title game, right behind Ohio State, with at least a 70% chance to win all their remaining games. The Hoosiers don’t have much competition remaining on their schedule.

If we go by the pre-season rankings, their next test is on November 8 at Penn State, which looked like a significant challenge earlier in the season. However, with James Franklin out of the way, it should be a blowout game for the Hoosiers.