The watch lists have been released. The Phil Steele College Football Preview has been published. The conference media days are behind us. Fall practice is underway. Indeed, we’ve already hit several of the faithful, time-tested checkpoints of the college football preseason. Now, it’s time for another.
ESPN’s computers are giving us a preview of how the upcoming regular season slate might unfold for Tom Allen’s Hoosiers, who are ranked No. 27 in the Worldwide Leader’s College Football Power Index. Developed eight years ago as a “predictive rating system designed to measure team strength and project performance going forward”, the FPI uses data from returning starters, past performance, recruiting rankings and coaching tenure to produce its annual preseason projections.