Taking a look at some of the key metrics of Indiana football and where it lands in the final preseason ESPN SP+ rankings.
On Wednesday, ESPN released the final preseason update of its SP+ projections and Indiana football begins the 2025 season ranked No. 23 in the SP+ ratings.
SP+ is based on three primary factors: Returning production, recent recruiting and recent history. ESPN’s Bill Connelly describes SP+ as:
“SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren’t intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date.”
Full SP+ Top-25 Rankings:
| TEAM | SP+ (RK) | OFF. | DEF. | ST | AVG. W | SOS RK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Ohio St. | 26.1 | 38.0 (8) | 12.0 (3) | 0.3 (11) | 10.0 | 21 |
| 2. Alabama | 25.5 | 39.3 (3) | 13.7 (6) | 0.2 (20) | 9.4 | 11 |
| 3. Georgia | 24.2 | 37.7 (10) | 13.5 (5) | 0.6 (1) | 9.3 | 13 |
| 4. Penn St. | 24.2 | 38.8 (4) | 14.6 (8) | 0.1 (58) | 10.0 | 29 |
| 5. Texas | 23.1 | 33.7 (24) | 10.7 (2) | -0.5 (135) | 9.1 | 12 |
| 6. Notre Dame | 22.0 | 36.8 (12) | 14.8 (9) | -0.2 (106) | 9.8 | 44 |
| 7. Oregon | 22.0 | 38.5 (5) | 16.6 (13) | 0.5 (3) | 9.6 | 32 |
| 8. Michigan | 20.9 | 31.5 (37) | 10.6 (1) | 0.2 (22) | 9.6 | 38 |
| 9. Ole Miss | 20.7 | 35.2 (18) | 14.5 (7) | 0.3 (7) | 9.0 | 23 |
| 10. Clemson | 20.2 | 38.4 (6) | 18.2 (20) | -0.3 (133) | 9.3 | 34 |
| 11. LSU | 20.1 | 39.7 (2) | 19.6 (24) | 0.1 (48) | 8.1 | 9 |
| 12. Tennessee | 19.4 | 31.9 (33) | 12.5 (4) | 0.2 (21) | 8.9 | 24 |
| 13. Texas A&M | 18.3 | 35.4 (17) | 17.1 (17) | 0.2 (24) | 8.0 | 10 |
| 14. Miami | 18.1 | 42.7 (1) | 24.6 (49) | 0.2 (19) | 9.0 | 36 |
| 15. Oklahoma | 17.5 | 33.8 (23) | 16.2 (11) | 0.2 (31) | 7.2 | 1 |
| 16. Florida | 16.2 | 34.9 (20) | 18.7 (22) | 0.3 (8) | 6.8 | 2 |
| 17. S. Carolina | 16.0 | 33.2 (26) | 17.2 (18) | 0.1 (50) | 7.1 | 7 |
| 18. Kansas St. | 15.3 | 35.5 (16) | 20.2 (29) | 0.2 (26) | 8.7 | 57 |
| 19. SMU | 14.6 | 38.0 (9) | 23.5 (42) | 0.1 (40) | 8.6 | 45 |
| 20. Missouri | 14.0 | 31.5 (38) | 17.5 (19) | -0.1 (96) | 7.8 | 25 |
| 21. USC | 13.2 | 37.3 (11) | 24.1 (44) | 0.1 (63) | 7.7 | 20 |
| 22. Auburn | 13.1 | 30.1 (48) | 17.0 (16) | -0.1 (83) | 7.0 | 15 |
| 23. Indiana | 12.5 | 32.2 (30) | 19.7 (25) | 0.2 (29) | 8.2 | 31 |
| 24. Louisville | 12.3 | 36.7 (13) | 24.4 (46) | -0.1 (97) | 8.1 | 43 |
| 25. Iowa | 12.1 | 27.2 (69) | 15.1 (10) | 0.3 (12) | 7.1 | 22 |
Indiana’s ranking is a vast improvement from a season ago. Following Indiana’s spring and summer in 2024, the Hoosiers’ ranking was 81st overall in the SP+ rankings heading into the season.
Indiana football returns All-Americans on the defensive side of the ball that are expected to be some of the top players in the entire country. Mikail Kamara, Aiden Fisher and D’Angelo Ponds all return to Bloomington after a terrific first season with the Hoosiers.
Following a season where IU quarterback Kurtis Rourke finished top-10 in the Heisman voting, Indiana brings in one of the most highly sought-out transfers at the position in Fernando Mendoza. Standout wide receivers Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper are back, in addition to former Maryland All-Big Ten running Roman Hemby.
Yet, Indiana is one of the top teams in the power four to see ‘largest projected regression versus 2024’.
“Recent history obviously drags Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers down a bit after last season’s incredible surge,” Connelly wrote. “But even if they settle in as merely a top-25 level program, that would be awfully impressive.”
The Indiana football program is coming off its best season in program history — an 11-2 record with a College Football Playoff appearance.
“Okay, now that’s all done. Last year is done. All the Coach Cignetti pictures in the buildings on game days, get them off the walls, all that stuff. Everything is earned, not given now. Okay,” Cignetti said at Big Ten Media Days this summer. “Nothing good in life comes easy. What’s cheap won’t last. What lasts isn’t cheap. You got to pay the price every single day, and do it consistently. When you are good, then you got to have that burning desire to be great because 98% of this game is between your ears.
“You have to have consistency and performance game in, game out, week in, week out. Especially when you’re successful, right? You can’t have the warm fuzzies, become complacent, begin to hate the things that got you to where you are. That stuff is not hard. Those are things that aren’t talked about very much, but to go the distance, those are the things that you’ve got to thrive and be good at.”
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Category: General Sports
