Big Ten Commissioner Defends Indiana Football's 2024 Schedule, Challenges Non-Con Approach

LAS VEGAS -- As Indiana football rolled to a College Football Playoff berth in 2024, the Hoosiers battled external questions about their strength of schedule.

Indiana played only four regular season games against bowl-eligible teams: Ohio State, which went 10-2 and won the national title; Michigan, which went 7-5 and beat Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl; Nebraska, which went 6-6 and beat Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl; and Washington, which went finished 6-6 and lost to Louisville in the Sun Bowl.

The rest of the Hoosiers' eight opponents had a cumulative record of 32-64, including a 19-41 mark from their five non-bowl-eligible Big Ten opponents.

Indiana's schedule subsequently became a common point of contention -- but Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti defended the Hoosiers' 2024 slate Tuesday at the 2025 Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas.

"When Indiana's schedule was made, on their schedule were the two teams that played in the championship game the season before, they played Michigan and Washington, both at home, won both of those games," said Petitti, who later touted the strength of the Big Ten.

"I think when you look at what expansion has meant the last couple of years -- I stand by how much tougher our league has gotten. You throw in the travel, how well our schools protect their home fields, all of that speaks for itself."

Petitti wasn't as directly supportive of the Hoosiers' non-conference scheduling tactics. Indiana doesn't have a Power 4 opponent on its non-conference slate through 2030, when it starts a home-and-home series with independent power Notre Dame.

The Hoosiers have canceled non-conference games against Louisville, Virginia and UConn over the past two years.

Petitti said non-conference games being dropped creates a pressing question for coaches: Does winning a big non-conference contest help more than losing a non-conference game hurts?

"That's the sentiment," Petitti said. "What's the right way to measure that? Also, a lot of these games tend to be played early in the season. You don't quite know who your team is at that point. Teams move up and down across the season. Some teams are unhealthy or unlucky. It really depends.

"I focus more on, 'Let's create an incentive to schedule more of them naturally.' I don't think we need rules to do it."

Petitti said the Big Ten has talked with the SEC about incentivizing teams to play each other, and Cignetti said he's open to a yearly head-to-head matchup with SEC opponents. Petitti hopes the two sides find common ground, because he believes fans want more high-caliber non-conference games.

And perhaps more pertinent and directly contrary to Indiana, Petitti believes having a stronger non-conference is beneficial -- even with the Big Ten as deep and talented as ever.

"I think there's been some writing, 'Well, those games won't mean anything if you are qualifying off your conference.' I disagree with that," Petitti said. "At the end of the day, you are still playing for seeding and straight seeding.

"If you had a system where you are qualifying off your conference record, winning or losing a tough nonconference game could affect seeding. Plus, the models we're talking about, there's still some at-large picks left. I think we got to focus on the right incentive."

Indiana's 2025 non-conference schedule includes home bouts with Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State. Of the Hoosiers' nine conference games, only four teams -- Illinois, Iowa, Oregon and Penn State -- made bowl games last season. Indiana will face three of the four -- all but Illinois -- on the road.

Opportunity exists for the Hoosiers, picked sixth in the preseason Big Ten poll, to make it back to the heights of 2024, which Cignetti dubbed the greatest season in school history. But along the way, they appear likely to run into the same schedule-related criticisms endured last fall.

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