CFP chair Hunter Yurachek, CBS Sports’ Richard Johnson weigh in on Indiana’s surprising slide

The Indiana Hoosiers had a bye in Week 10 and dropped from No. 4 to No. 9 when the College Football Playoff selection committee released its second rankings of 2026 on Tuesday night. The 8-1 defending national champions went from holding a first-round bye to a first-round trip to the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers in the projected bracket.

“Indiana, it’s simple! If you don’t like that seed that you’re in right now, go beat a ranked USC team!” Richard Johnson, who covers college football for CBS Sports and appears on CBS Sports HQ, said in a segment CBS Sports posted reacting to the new rankings.

“Indiana, it’s simple! If you don’t like that seed that you’re in right now, go beat a ranked USC team!”

@RJ_cfb reacts to Indiana dropping to No. 9 in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings.

#scoreboard https://t.co/9uWeIj5zvp

— CBS Sports College Football

(@CBSSportsCFB) November 11, 2026

The USC Trojans, 7-2 and No. 18 in the committee’s rankings, visit Bloomington on Saturday. Indiana’s only loss came against the Ohio State Buckeyes on Oct. 17, and Ohio State has since lost 30-18 at USC on Oct. 31 and 41-28 at home to the Oregon Ducks on Nov. 7.

“UCLA went on the road and beat a Minnesota team that had gone to Indiana the week prior. Indiana needed a 60-yard field goal as time expired to send that game into overtime and win that game. The committee is really impressed with what UCLA, Texas and Notre Dame did, as well as Alabama obviously with their big win at LSU, and then every team that Indiana had played to date in the Big Ten, they all lost, so they had six losses that went against their record strength as well as their strength of schedule, and those metrics affected the committee’s review of Indiana this week as well,” committee chair Hunter Yurachek said, according to USA TODAY’s Jordan Mendoza.

The UCLA Bruins took the No. 4 spot Indiana held after the first release. The committee measured the two teams partly through a common opponent, and the Bruins handled the Minnesota Golden Gophers more comfortably on the road than Indiana did at home on Oct. 31.

Indiana’s strength of schedule fell to No. 42 in ESPN’s ratings over a weekend in which the Hoosiers never took the field. They had no say in any of those six results, and the fix available to them runs through Saturday, since a win over a ranked opponent adds the kind of value a weakened conference slate stopped providing.

What else is the committee questioning about Indiana?

“They’re a dominant defensive team, one of the best, if not the best, defensive teams statistically in the country. They have won games because of their defense, not because of their offense, and so that that is a point of discussion in the room when we’re comparing them to other teams,” Yurachek said, per Mendoza.

Indiana needed overtime in each of its last two games, winning 13-6 at the Michigan Wolverines on Oct. 24 and 23-16 over Minnesota on Oct. 31. Backup quarterback Grant Wilson replaced an injured Josh Hoover in the Minnesota game and threw the touchdown pass that won it on the first play of overtime.

A win over USC would address both of Yurachek’s concerns at once, adding a ranked victory to a resume that lost value during the bye and coming against the team that beat Ohio State. It would also give Indiana’s offense a chance to answer the questions Yurachek raised about it, against a USC team that enters Bloomington with its own Playoff path still open.

After USC, Indiana visits the Washington Huskies and closes the regular season against the Purdue Boilermakers. The Hoosiers are 0-4 all-time against USC, and the programs have not met since 1982.

Related Readings:

Dabo Swinney makes his stance clear on Clemson hiring an external general manager

Eli Drinkwitz puts Missouri’s Texas loss on himself while Missouri AD calls for officiating transparency

CFP’s Rich Clark shares telling detail about how fans shaped the 24-team playoff

Lane Kiffin reveals what Archie Manning did after calling him names in viral video

The post CFP chair Hunter Yurachek, CBS Sports’ Richard Johnson weigh in on Indiana’s surprising slide appeared first on Gridiron Heroics.