Earlier this month, Indiana canceled its home-and-home series against Virginia and added an FCS opponent to the schedule. When asked about that move at Big Ten Media Days, Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti took aim at the SEC.
Cignetti said the scheduling philosophy at Indiana pre-dates his time with the school, but he still had final say once he took over the program. But he also pointed out the Big Ten’s nine-game conference schedule and compared it to the SEC’s eight-game slate – a key point of conversation this month.
As he broke it down, Cignetti noted the differences between the two non-conference schedules, particularly with regard to Group of 5 and FCS opponents. In the process, he said Indiana is simply adopting the SEC’s philosophy.
“That was a scheduling philosophy that began before I was hired. But I did sign off on it upon being hired, before our first season,” Cignetti said in Las Vegas. “Look, here’s the bottom line. We picked up an extra home game and we play nine conference games. The two best conferences in college football – any football guy that’s objective will tell you – [are] the Big Ten and the SEC. Twelve of the 16 SEC teams play three G5 or an FCS game. Twelve of those teams play 36 games – 29 G5 games and seven FCS games, and one less conference game.
“So we figured we’d just adopt [an] SEC scheduling philosophy. Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused in on those nine conference games.”
Curt Cignetti: ‘Why shouldn’t the Big Ten have 4 AQs?’
Curt Cignetti also strongly voiced his support for the 4-4-2-2-1 College Football Playoff format, which is in line with the Big Ten’s stance. Under the mode, the Big Ten and SEC would each get four bids to the 16-team field while the Big 12 and ACC get two each. The Group of 6 would get one spot and there would be three at-large teams to fill out the bracket. It would also include play-in games, which Cignetti supports.
On3’s Brett McMurphy reported the Big Ten doesn’t plan to compromise its stance on the future CFP format if the SEC keeps its eight-game conference schedule. Cignetti went a step further and called for a standardized schedule to help make the selection process easier.
“Not only do we want to play nine conference games and have the [4-4-2-2-1] Playoff format, we want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs,” Cignetti said. “Championship weekend, let’s play 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5. You want to decide that on the field and make sure everybody’s strength of schedule’s what it needs to be? Let’s make everybody play nine conference games and on championship weekend, 3 will play 6, 4 will play 5 and there’s still room for another at-large in that format.
“And why shouldn’t the Big Ten have four AQs? Because Ohio State actually finished fourth in the conference at the end of the season. Indiana and Penn State were tied for second – they won the tiebreaker. Ohio State won the national championship. You want to put the best teams in the playoff? Give the best leagues the AQs, but make them earn it with play-in games. And we wouldn’t be opposed to Big Ten-SEC regular season games every year. We need to standardize the schedule across the board if we want to have objective criteria for who should be in the playoffs and who shouldn’t, and we need to take the decision-making off the committee to some degree.”
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