INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti could face his former team in the quarterfinals of this year’s College Football Playoff.
The final set of CFP rankings and the 12-team bracket will be revealed at noon on Dec. 7 with Indiana expected to be Rose Bowl-bound and James Madison firmly on the bubble. The Hoosiers (13-0) will likely get the No. 1 seed after a 13-10 win over Ohio State and head to Pasadena as the Big Ten’s top-ranked team.
Duke’s win over Virginia in the ACC title game opened the door for this year’s Sun Belt champs to get into the field.
By rule, the five highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic bids and JMU was ranked at No. 25 in the penultimate set of rankings. The unranked Blue Devils were an unlikely conference champ with five losses while the Dukes finished the season at 12-1.
For Indiana to play James Madison, the Dukes would also need to win a first-round game in a likely No. 5 vs. No. 12 matchup. Oregon was ranked at No. 5 last week and the only team that lost ahead of them was No. 1 Ohio State.
It’s a long shot, but Cignetti was asked about the possibility on Saturday night.
“Whoever we play, we play,” Cignetti said. “I had five great years at James Madison. I love the people. I worked for a great AD and a great president. And it was a hard decision to come. Big reason I did was because I really felt strong about Scott and Pam Whitten. And that’s in the past. So I mean, whoever we play, we’re going to have to have a plan, we’re going to have to play well.”
Cignetti was 52-9 at James Madison and was at the helm while the program transitioned from the FCS to the FBS. He made the FCS title game in 2019 and helped JMU qualify for its first bowl game in 2023 before accepting the IU job.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What Curt Cignetti thinks about facing James Madison, his former team, in CFP
Reporting by Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times / Indianapolis Star
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