College Football: Ranking the 10 easiest Power Five schedules in 2017
By Zach Bigalke
Indiana has one of those schedules that offers all or nothing. The Hoosiers play four teams that won ten or more games in 2016. Only one other team on their calendar, Maryland (6-7 in 2016), went bowling last year. Two-thirds of Indiana’s schedule features teams that ended their previous season under .500 in the final standings. It could be the ingredient to get them back to a bowl game this season, but those four tough games preclude a bigger jump in status.
Tom Allen’s team opens the season against Ohio State (11-2), a tough test in its own right. The Hoosiers then follow that Big Ten showdown with a non-conference trio of Virginia (2-10), FIU (4-8), and Georgia Southern (5-7). September concludes with a road game against Big Ten champ Penn State (11-3), and October begins with a home game against Michigan (10-3). But in cross-divisional play, Indiana managed to avoid Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.
They do play Wisconsin (11-3), but they also landed November dates with Illinois (3-9) and Purdue (3-9). At the very least, Indiana should manage to finish the year with a winning record for the first time in a decade. Eight wins is not out of reach for the Hoosiers, a mark they haven’t hit since 1993. And if they managed to get to nine wins with a bowl victory, they’d be the first Indiana squad in 50 years to hit that plateau.