Paul Finebaum names college football's biggest surprise after seven weeks

ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum was a guest on the Matt Barrie Show Sunday and discussed a wealth of topics, including the biggest surprise in college football's first seven weeks of the 2025 season. Finebaum didn't hesitate in picking his top surprise of the season to date-- the Indiana Hoosiers.

Paul's Pick

Asked by Matt Barrie to deliver his superlative pick for biggest surprise of the season, Finebaum made his IU pitch.

Well, I'm going to say Indiana like I did earlier because I didn't buy in.... I just thought there was no way they were going to make it back to the Playoffs, and they are going to make it back to the Playoffs.
Paul Finebaum

Barrie agreed, responding, "Indiana for me and that's a lock..... They're a championship caliber team and they've done everything and then some."

Indiana's resume

A season ago, Indiana's 11-2 season and CFP appearance were shocking. The Hoosiers had never won ten games and had not finished in the top ten at the end of a season since 1967. Indiana was picked to finish 17th in the Big Ten in a preseason media poll from Cleveland.com. Instead, Curt Cignetti's first IU team started 10-0 and was the darlings of college football.

But in 2025, expectations were that Indiana would fade toward the middle of the Big Ten pack. Indiana was now picked sixth in the preseason media poll. QB Kurtis Rourke finished his eligibility and was replaced by relative unknown Fernando Mendoza from California.

But the Hoosiers are now 6-0 and have blasted ranked Illinois (63-10) and Oregon (30-20) teams on their way to a No. 3 overall ranking. Indiana has no ranked teams on the remainder of its regular season schedule and a game at Penn State suddenly doesn't look very daunting.

ESPN's FPI analytics give the Hoosiers a 92.5% chance of earning a CFP bid, second best in all of college football behind only Ohio State. Cignetti and Indiana might not have been quite as shocking in 2025 as they were in 2024, but so far, the Hoosiers have been even more impressive. Finebaum and Barrie are far from the only observers who note an incredible IU season.