How To Watch Indiana In The College Football Playoff Selection Show

Indiana’s fate will finally be known as the College Football Playoff bracket is revealed on Sunday.

Indiana's Justice Ellison (6) dives for the endzone during the Indiana versus Purdue football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – After what’s seemed like an eternal wait, Indiana will be slotted into the College Football Playoff bracket at noon on Sunday.

Indiana, currently ranked ninth in the College Football Playoff rankings, will make the College Football Playoff as an at-large team.

According to ESPN’s Playoff Predictor, Indiana has better than a 99% chance to make the field. The College Football Playoff committee has also indicated that teams that aren’t playing in conference championship games should stay static in the rankings since they have wrapped up their regular seasons. It would take a change in philosophy by the committee on that front to put Indiana in jeopardy of not making the field.

The CFP selection show will be a four-hour event. An Indiana spokesman told Hoosiers On SI that the team will not gather for the selection show.

Here’s some basic rules you should know about as far as how the College Football Playoff field is compiled:

• The five highest-rated conference champions make the field. Four of them will receive byes to the quarterfinals. It was conceived with the idea that the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12 champions would get those four byes. However, parity in the Big 12 and a good season from Boise State in the Mountain West Conference means that the Broncos will likely get a bye should it win the Mountain West championship on Friday night.

• The other seven teams are at-large selections from across FBS and there is no limit on how many teams per-conference can be chosen. Since the fifth conference champion could come from a spot lower than No. 12 in the rankings, whether it’s the Big 12 champion or if Clemson wins the ACC championship, the fifth-best conference champ will likely be in the No. 12 spot.

• The eight teams that don’t receive byes play the first round on campus sites on Dec. 20-21. The No. 5-8 seeds will host those games.

• The CFP quarterfinals will be played at the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Peach Bowl on Dec. 31-Jan. 1. When possible, teams are assigned to playoff quarterfinal games at traditional bowl sites that are most identified with the conferences they play in.

So if Oregon was the No. 1 seed, it would be assigned to the Rose Bowl as that’s where the Big Ten champion traditionally went. Texas or Georgia would be slotted to the Sugar Bowl as SEC champion and so on.

• After the conference champions are seeded, the at-large teams are seeded in order by ranking. There is no provision to prevent conference-vs.-conference matchups in the first round. So, in theory, Indiana could play Ohio State or Penn State in a first-round game.

How To Watch The College Football Playoff Selection Show

What: With the conclusion of the regular season and the conference championship games, the 12-team College Football Playoff field will be announced.

When: Noon ET on Sunday, Dec. 8.

TV: ESPN. The show will air for four hours on Sunday.                        

Host: Rece Davis will host with a number of ESPN college football analysts.

What’s at stake for Indiana: The Hoosiers, currently ranked ninth in the College Football Playoff rankings, will find out who and where they will play in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

When are the first round games? The first round games will take place on campus sites on Friday, Dec. 20 with one game at 8 p.m. ET. The other three games will be played on Saturday, Dec. 21, with kickoffs at noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET

What if Indiana advances? If Indiana wins its first round game, it will advance to the quarterfinals at a neutral bowl site to play one of the top four-seeded teams, all of whom will be conference championship game winners. Those games will be played on Tuesday, Dec. 31 (Fiesta Bowl, 7:30 p.m. ET) and Wednesday, Jan. 1. The Jan. 1 games are the Peach Bowl, 1 p.m. ET; the Rose Bowl, 5 p.m. ET; and the Sugar Bowl, 8:45 p.m. ET.

What if Indiana advances to the semifinals? The semifinal games will also take place at neutral bowl sites. One semifinal will be played on Thursday, Jan. 9 (Orange Bowl, 7:30 p.m. ET) and the other on Friday, Jan. 10 (Cotton Bowl, 7:30 p.m. ET).

What if Indiana makes it to the College Football Championship game? That game will be played at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 7:30 p.m ET on Monday, Jan. 20.

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• IU ASSISTANT COACHING MOVEMENT: Quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri will leave Indiana for UCLA after the College Football Playoff. But head coach Curt Cignetti has retained the rest of his staff with new contracts. CLICK HERE

• CIGNETTI TO ADD PORTAL QB: With current quarterback Kurtis Rourke in his final year of collegiate eligibility, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said Wednesday that, “we will definitely recruit a quarterback out of the portal.” CLICK HERE

• WHAT CIGNETTI SAID: What Curt Cignetti said during his Signing Day press conference. CLICK HERE.