Indiana misses AP top 25 for 1,299th consecutive week

The preseason AP college football poll was released today. Predictably, defending champion Clemson holds down the #1 spot, with last year’s runner-up Alabama at #2.

And for the 1,299th consecutive week, Indiana finds itself unranked in the long-standing poll. In fact, the Hoosiers did not even receive a single preseason vote. That’s one fewer vote than USC received. Virginia, who the Hoosiers defeated last year, received 44 votes.

The Hoosiers are coming up on almost 25 years since their last AP ranking, when they were the #25 team in the country on September 20, 1994. As I detailed last year in a very similar post, the Hoosiers left the rankings after a 62-13 loss to Wisconsin the next week, and have still yet to return.

Seven Big Ten teams, of which IU plays five, are ranked as well. These include Ohio State (5th), Michigan (7th), Penn State (15th), MSU (18th), Wisconsin (19th), Iowa (20th), and Nebraska (24th). Nebraska won one fewer game than IU did last year.

There are currently no plans next week for Indiana to celebrate its 1,300th consecutive week out of the rankings.