Indiana 2025 Football Schedule: Best & Worst Scenarios, Season Prediction

Who does Indiana miss from the Big Ten schedule?

Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers, USC, Washington

You’d sort of rather play Rutgers and Northwestern than Oregon, Penn State, or Iowa, or …

Indiana doesn’t have too much of a beef. It misses Ohio State and Michigan. Those two were major problems for this program for forever - even with the great win over the Wolverines last year.

There’s no complaining about not playing Nebraska, Minnesota, USC, and Washington - all should be even more dangerous this season.

Indiana football schedule, the good and the bad

The Good: Again, there’s no Ohio State or Michigan to face.

To put it politely, Indiana isn’t exactly pushing the envelope when it comes to non-conference play. It’ll start the season 3-0 with ease, the first four games are in Bloomington, and the team doesn’t leave Indiana after November 8th. However …

The Bad: The midsection is rough.

Four road games in six dates, back-to-back away games at Iowa and Oregon - with a week off in between - back-to-back games against Maryland and Penn State, and after winning in blowouts last season, Michigan State and UCLA won’t be as beatable.

Indiana Football Schedule: Best and worst case scenarios

Best Case Scenario: Run it back.

The Hoosiers beat Illinois, split the dates against Iowa and Oregon on the road, take care of Bloomington with a 4-0 Big Ten home record, and overcome a road loss to Penn State to get 10-2 with another at-large spot in the College Football Playoff

Worst Case Scenario: The same vibe isn’t there.

Losses to Illinois, at Iowa, and at Oregon State start the conference season on a down note, there’s a loss to Penn State, and Wisconsin is a struggle. It’s a bowl campaign, but it’s not nearly as much fun.

What Will Happen: (Feb 10) There are more than enough winnable games - assuming Indiana is close to as strong as last year - to get three more after rolling through the first three games. But last year’s schedule turned out to be far easier than expected. That’s not the case this time. Oregon, Penn State, and Iowa were all off the 2024 slate, and now they’re all road games. Think closer to 7-5/6-6 and 10-2ish.

The What Will Happen will be updated several times this offseason