Indiana Fans Should Be Upset With This Notre Dame-Less Future Non-Conference Schedule

We all understand what Indiana is doing by taking on the lightest workload possible in non-conference play.

By virtue of canceling the Notre Dame series, the Hoosiers are now staring at a future that lacks a single Power Conference foe in non-conference play.

Well, that's assuming that Delaware doesn't get a call-up from one of the big boys. Until that happens, though, don't hold your breath on IU beefing up its out-of-conference matchups.

First it was Virginia, and now it's Notre Dame. Adios. See ya next era. Maybe? Probably not.

Two things can be true at the same time.

Indiana's Future Schedules Are Missing a Major Rivalry and a National Opportunity

I know, I know. You're going to tell me that Indiana fans would rather make the Playoff than see a juicy non-conference matchup. That's not really what this is about, though.

What Indiana AD Scott Dolson and Curt Cignetti are essentially trying to avoid is ever being 2025 Texas. As in, the team that played a premier non-conference game (at Ohio State), and was left wondering about what could've happened if it played UMass instead of OSU in non-conference play.

It was loser talk from Texas, and it'd be loser talk from Indiana if it ever came to that. If you disagree, ask yourself how you felt sympathetic when Steve Sarkisian whined and complained about that.

For now, we're living in a 12-team Playoff world. Whether IU's philosophy would extend into another era of an expanded Playoff remains to be seen.

In this world, though, the 12-team Playoff has kept out multiple 10-2 Power Conference teams in each of its first two years. Why were those 10-2 teams left out? Well, they lacked a marquee non-conference win and didn't get the benefit of the doubt from the selection committee.

There's a world in which that happens to IU this year. Lord knows a 10-2 IU team would've been left out of the 2024 field.

But remember that IU is in a different spot than most among its fanbase

IU just had the biggest influx of fans possible. Spend enough time listening to Cignetti speak and he'll refer to how IU has the largest living alumni base in the country, and that he'd like a new stadium.

Let's also remember that with how soundly IU has beaten middle-of-the-pack teams in conference play, you're not exactly getting 60 minutes of entertaining football for home fans to stick around. That's a first-world problem.

But by deliberately ducking teams in non-conference play, you're not improving that season ticket package, nor are you giving your own fans a chance to further establish a traveling presence. You know, like the one that took over the Playoff.

Can you imagine how much Crimson would be present in South Bend if those teams were kicking off the season in 2026? I realize that's not what was scheduled, but think about the type of rallying cry it would be to watch Indiana do something like that right now, or if it traveled to face Tennessee in Knoxville.

IU fans told us all last season — if you build it, they will come. They'll travel from coast-to-coast for big-time matchups. Those unique, move-the-needle games are a chance to continue to grow a fanbase that needs to be less elastic.

(Of course it's a fair-weather fanbase, but every fanbase in America would be fair-weather if it went from being the laughing stock of the sport to national champs. You're crazy if you think otherwise.)

With all due respect to North Texas, Ball State, UConn, and all the other non-conference teams that Indiana will smash 56-3, opportunities are being left on the table.

Now is the time when Indiana should be willing to flex its muscles, which doesn't necessarily mean it has to travel every year to face a preseason national champion.

But for all the comps to Nick Saban's Alabama team, you know what that squad did? It found a creative way to do the "anywhere, anytime" thing ... without actually doing that. From 2009-21, Alabama only played neutral-site games in its non-conference headliner. It worked.

Perhaps those days are in the rearview mirror, and the IU way of thinking will become more en vogue, though it does seem a bit backwards considering that we're living in a time in which the margin for error has never been greater.

As it stands, IU is selling its fans short by taking marquee games off the schedule and continuing a strategy that was at the root of trying to get to six wins in a previous life.

It might just do more harm than good.

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