During the most recent “Outta Pocket podcast“, Robert Griffin III made an assertion that Indiana should be the No. 1 team in the nation. In saying so as he did, Griffin chose to discount any legitimacy Ohio State has to the top-ranking by using subjective details to promote Indiana. There’s no harm in promoting the efforts of a team in the hunt. There’s no harm in questioning the existing rankings. However, Griffin attempted to alter the landscape by presenting subjectivity as if it were objectivity.
“Indiana is the best team in the country and Curt Cignetti has them playing at a high level,” Griffin said. “People are weary of last year when they got blown out in the college football playoff, and that makes you hold that against them. They went on the road and beat Oregon, who I have ranked as the No. 1 team in the country going into this week in front of a sold-out crowd. That to me, if you want to be the man you have to beat the man.”
A “high level” is not a metric of excellence or confirmation of the top spot. It’s a term that could be applied to any number of the top teams in the country. Cignetti, like Ryan Day, Mario Cristobal, and Lane Kiffin, all have their teams playing at a “high level”. Playing at a high level only suggests they are playing at a higher level than average.
Projecting other people’s resistance based on something from last year is a bit of a stretch. There has been a lot said about Cignetti’s Hoosiers in 2025, and this might be the first time someone has mentioned how they performed last year in the playoff as a possible negative in the equation of the would-be rankings.
Where can Indiana improve?
Beating Oregon on the road is a big accomplishment for any team. However, Griffin’s statement about beating the #1 team in the country is simply not accurate. Ohio State is the #1 team in the country and according to the Associate Press, they were the No. 1 team last week. The only line that is worse than suggesting Indiana beat the top team in the country last week is his claim of “in front of a sold-out crowd”. Teams don’t get extra credit for winning games in front of sold-out crowds. A win is a win. Whether it’s in front of 60,000 people or 6 people.
Invoking the sports idiom, “if you want to be the man you have to beat the man” was an interesting choice. Interesting because while it’s used often, it’s an idiom and works best in the abstract. It’s used to motivate players but was used here as if it is to be taken literally. For this to be taken literally and correctly, Indiana needed to beat Ohio State last week, not Oregon.
It is possible that Indiana could become the #1 team in the country, but that is not a true statement today. Both Ohio State and Indiana have favorable remaining schedules. Barring a trap game loss or a very close win over a lower ranked opponent, it seems unlikely Indiana will be able to pass Ohio State without a head-to-head matchup in the Big Ten title game.
Top-ranked Ohio State plays unranked Wisconsin Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on CBS. Indiana will face off against unranked Michigan State at the same time on Peacock.