Indiana Moves Up To No. 5 In AP Football Poll

Indiana moves up three spots in the poll as the Hoosiers creep close to their best-ever ranking.

Indiana's Ke'Shawn Williams (5) celebrates a long gain during the Indiana versus Michigan football game at Memorial Stadium on Friday, Nov. 9, 2024. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – By November, the College Football Playoff rankings overtake the traditional Associated Press Top 25 in importance and in impact on the season, but the AP Top 25 still has its usefulness as both a barometer of how the CFP rankings might turn out as well as a historical benchmark for what a team has accomplished.

In Indiana’s case, the Hoosiers are getting very close to their all-time high water mark in the AP poll.

The latest Top 25 was released on Sunday and Indiana moved up three spots to No. 5 in the rankings.

The Hoosiers are in an extremely tight group ranked 4-6 with No. 4 Penn State, No. 5 Indiana and No. 6 Tennessee. Only four poll points separate those three teams. Indiana is only a point (the equivalent of a 25th-place vote) behind Penn State for the No. 4 position.

Tennessee is one of the teams Indiana passed on its way to the No. 5 spot. The Volunteers won on Saturday against Mississippi State, but the Hoosiers passed Tennessee anyway on the strength of a 20-15 win over Michigan.

Indiana passed two other schools. Georgia, 28-10 losers at Ole Miss, fell from No. 2 to No. 11. Miami (Fla), who lost 28-23 at Georgia Tech, fell from No. 4 to No. 12.

Indiana has only spent seven weeks in the AP Top 5 in its football history prior to Sunday. The 1945 Hoosiers spent five weeks in top 5 and finished in the No. 4 spot. The 1967 Hoosiers spent two weeks in the Top 5 and finished No. 4 in the poll. In both 1945 and 1967, the final poll was conducted before bowl games were played. That changed in 1968.

Indiana’s Top 5 position, should it last to next Sunday's poll, means that when the Hoosiers play at Ohio State on Nov. 23, it will be a matchup of Top 5 teams if the Buckeyes can hold their spot. The Buckeyes are ranked No. 2 in the poll. Ohio State plays Northwestern at Wrigley Field Saturday.

Indiana has only played one Top 5 vs. Top 5 game in school history – the 1968 Rose Bowl against Southern California. When the final poll of the 1967 season was conducted on Nov. 27, USC was the top-ranked team in the country and the Hoosiers were ranked No. 4 after beating then-No. 3 Purdue to earn the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl bid. The Trojans won the game 14-3.

The Big Ten has four of the five teams in the Top 5. Oregon is ranked No. 1, Ohio State is No. 2, Penn State is No. 4 and Indiana is No. 5. They are the only four Big Ten teams in the Top 25.

The next round of College Football Playoff rankings come out at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The rankings are broadcast live on ESPN.

Here’s the full AP Top 25.

1. Oregon, 10-0 (62), 1,523

2. Ohio State, 8-1, 1,484

3. Texas, 8-1, 1,409

4. Penn State, 8-1, 1,274

5. Indiana, 10-0, 1,273

6. Tennessee, 8-1, 1,270

7. BYU, 9-0, 1,161

8. Notre Dame, 8-1, 1,095

9. Alabama, 7-2, 1,036

10. Ole Miss, 8-2, 966

11. Georgia, 7-2, 964

12. Miami (Fla.), 9-1, 907

13. Boise State, 8-1, 839

14. SMU, 8-1, 788

15. Texas A&M, 7-2, 674

16. Army, 9-0, 533

17. Clemson, 7-2, 524

18. Colorado, 7-2, 463

19. Washington State, 8-1, 456

20. Kansas State, 7-2, 333

21. LSU, 6-3, 265

22. Louisville, 6-3, 240

23. South Carolina, 6-3, 203

24. Missouri, 7-2, 176

25. Tulane, 8-2, 98

Other receiving votes (numbers listed are points assigned for votes, not the vote total): Iowa State (7-2) 92, Arizona State (7-2) 35, Pittsburgh (7-2) 18, Louisiana (8-1) 14, UNLV (7-2) 10.