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CHICAGO — Despite its proximity to Chicago, Indiana is not exactly as beloved as our other neighbors.
Wisconsin is like our backyard neighbor who lets us use their pool any time. Michigan is like an old friend who stays out for “one more” after everyone else has gone home.
Indiana?
It’s a toll road that rips us off on our way to other vacation spots, or maybe a place to go for cheap fireworks.
But lately we’re in an Indiana state of mind, thanks to its two college football powers.
The basketball-crazed state could send two teams to the College Football Playoff, a scenario no one would have envisioned when the 2024 season started in August.
Notre Dame is one of them, to no one’s surprise. But the 8-1 Irish are basically a national team that just happens to be located in South Bend, Ind., close enough for the subway alumni in Chicago to consider them their own.
After a rude awakening in a Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois, Notre Dame was No. 10 in the first CFP rankings and is a safe bet to make the playoffs if it doesn’t falter in its final three games against Virginia, Army and USC.
The other potential playoff qualifier is Indiana, a football program that has been insignificant since its last Big Ten championship in 1967, when Lyndon Johnson was president, “The Andy Griffith Show” was the most-watched TV series in America and gas cost 33 cents a gallon.
Despite being natural in-state rivals, the two schools haven’t met since 1991, though they’ve scheduled a two-game series for 2030 at Notre Dame and 2031 in Bloomington, Ind.
Yet a dream scenario could have the Irish and Hoosiers meeting in the playoffs, a battle for state supremacy that would pit a traditional national power against college football’s ultimate Cinderella.
It might seem far-fetched to think the state of Indiana could be the center of the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/paul-sullivan-hoosier-state-indiana-103000574.html
Author : Chicago Tribune
Publish date : 2024-11-13 10:30:00
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