The Indiana Hoosiers go into the 2026 season as the defending champions of the national championship, but have been overlooked as favorites. For some reason, they cannot seem to get the underdog label off their neck. Despite being placed outside the top five, ESPN host Paul Finebaum believes their ranking is perfect and shares the reason for his claim.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The Associated Press Top 25 Preseason Poll was recently announced after voting from a nationwide panel of 69 sportswriters and broadcasters. With no established criteria, the voters simply make their decisions logically and vote for their top 25 teams, with the first-place vote worth 25 points down to the 25th-place at one point. The voters ranked the Indiana Hoosiers No. 6 despite their recent triumph, which has brought about polarizing takes.
“That’s where they were picked last year in the Big 10,” Finebaum said in an August 18 appearance on ESPN’s Sports Center. “So, they’re they are moving on up after a perfect season. They’re exactly where they should be for this reason. Everybody in front of them has a starting quarterback. And if Indiana had its starting quarterback, number one. But I can’t put them any higher. And the other reason is the schedule is much more difficult. Ohio State, they saw them last year in the Big 10 Championship game. They’re at Michigan. USC arrives. I know what the uh the the analytics say, but that is a far more difficult schedule. And the reason why they’re number six instead of number one.”
The Indiana Hoosiers soared from No. 20 in the AP Preseason Poll in 2025 to winning the national championship. Even in the Big Ten Conference, they were ranked behind five Big Ten teams. Therefore, rather than see it as an underestimation due to their national championship win, Finebaum sees it as a massive step forward for the program.
Though Indiana might have lost some significant players via the transfer portal, so has every other program ahead of them, especially the Buckeyes, who had four players drafted within the top 11 picks. Head coach Curt Cignetti replaced Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza with TCU Horned Frogs transfer Josh Hoover. And while Hoover’s rate of turnovers poses a huge challenge to the Hoosiers, who are known to be very disciplined and careful with the ball, Cignetti has decided to focus on the advantages and the similarities he shares with Mendoza.
While all five teams ahead of Indiana have a returning QB1, there is no guarantee that their QBs outperform Hoover. Mendoza was not Indiana’s QB1 until the 2025 season, and he outshone every other quarterback in college football. Cignetti is known to get it right with experienced college players, and Hoover might just be one of those right moves for him.
At No. 33, Indiana has the easiest schedule of the top six teams according to the ESPN Football Power Index, yet that is not a good enough reason to see them rank ahead of the likes of Ohio State and Georgia, whose schedules are among the top-10 toughest in the country. Predictions are predictions. And if the Hoosiers could jump from 20th to 1st, then placing them at sixth is an opportunity, giving them less difficult work to do.