Indiana will be playing in a college football ball game on New Year’s weekend.
It just won’t be in one of the prestigious New Years Six games the Hoosiers hoped to be in, based on their No. 7 national rank and 6-1 record.
It also won’t be in the Citrus Bowl, where, after getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff committee for a New Years Six bowl, IU was expected to be slated as the second-highest ranked Big Ten team. But Northwestern, which won the Big Ten West but finished ranked No. 15, got that slot.
Instead, Indiana will play on Jan. 2 in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., against an Ole Miss team that went 4-5 in the Southeastern Conference.
The Hoosiers will be the highest ranked team to play in the 35-year-old bowl.
Indiana coach Tom Allen was asked if he and the team felt slighted by the selection committee.
“There'll be a time and a place to address that,” Allen said. “I don't think this is the time or the place.”
Allen did hear from the committee, but was less than impressed with their rationale.
“It was explained to me, but not necessarily to my satisfaction,” Allen said. “But that's really not the point I made. This team is a special group. And this team has done everything I've asked them to do. So, I'm so proud of them and the chance for us to go play in a bowl game.
“I am not gonna let anything take away from that. This group's too special. They've done too many awesome things.”
So, an obviously disappointed Allen focused on the positives.
“They've always kind of circled the Outback Bowl,” Allen said about the team. “For me, personally, and for so many of our players that are from that area, it’s an awesome bowl opportunity for us to have. And so that's what we're going to focus on right now.”
They can also focus on what has been one of the program’s best seasons in a half a century.
The Hoosiers tied a program record for Big Ten wins in a season with six, were ranked in the top 25 nine weeks, tying the 1945 team’s record, and their No. 7 ranking is their highest since 1967. Indiana beat three ranked teams in a season for the first time and had a program-record four players named first team All-Big Ten on defense.
But the Hoosiers have felt underappreciated much of the season. They were underdogs against teams ranked lower than them. And No. 3 Ohio State was a three-touchdown favorite. Indiana lost by seven, it’s only loss of the season.
And they’ll carry that chip on their shoulder to Tampa.
“This program has a chance to show who we are on a national stage for everybody to watch, one more time, how good is Indiana football team is,” Allen said. “But you know what, it doesn't matter what I say, it matters how this team performs on January 2, in Tampa, Florida.”
Allen has ties to both Ole Miss and Tampa.
He was an assistant coach at Ole Miss from 2012-14, and Allen got his coaching start at Temple Heights High School in Tampa in 1992.
Indiana also has nearly 20 players from Florida, including a half-dozen from Tampa. That list includes wide receiver Whop Philyor, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and Allen’s son Thomas.
Kickoff for the Jan. 2 game at Raymond James Stadium is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ABC.
