Indiana’s move to cancel a nonconference series with Louisville was a shrewd, almost essential move when it happened in 2023.
Per reporting from Michael Niziolek at the Herald-Times, the program has made another, similar move in cancelling an upcoming series against Virginia. There’s a few differences this time around, but it’s worth revisiting the previous series cancellation.
Indiana and Louisville were set to meet three times, each receiving a home game after an opening neutral site matchup in Indianapolis. Instead, only said neutral site matchup was played, resulting in a loss for a then-spiraling Indiana program.
There’s pretty much never a “normal” time for college football, but 2023 was different. The Big Ten and SEC were consolidating power by adding big name, big money programs like USC, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Oklahoma (sorry, UCLA). Conferences like the Big 12 and ACC were left on their heels, struggling to survive while the Pac-12 all but died, now existing in a zombified state led by Washington State and Oregon State.
The Big Ten and SEC were already the two most powerful conferences in the sport prior to realignment. Poaching the biggest brands from those lesser conferences in a cold war only cemented their status as true super leagues.
And then another idea emerged. If big name programs could be added to bolster TV audiences in a war over broadcast dollars, surely smaller programs that dilute the product (and, more importantly, the money pot) could be cut… right?
It was perhaps this worry that led Indiana to make that scheduling move. In the landscape of college football, the Hoosiers have far more in common with the Oregon States and Washington States than the Texases, Oregons or even the Nebraskas and Missouris.
How could Indiana avoid that fate, should such a move come to…
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Publish date : 2025-06-28 10:00:00
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