ESPN’s FPI predicts outcome of Alabama’s Playoff showdown vs. Indiana
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ESPN’s FPI has revealed what it believes will go down when 1 of the most interesting matchups you could ever see takes place at a very historic place.
On New Year’s Day afternoon at the venerable Rose Bowl, a football blue blood in Alabama and a basketball blue blood in Indiana will clash in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal that’s oozing with subplots. There is the fact that Bama is a pretty sizable underdog as the 9th seed in the Playoff and the fact that Indiana, which has little to show for its football program’s history, is the No. 1 seed with a newly minted Heisman Trophy winner playing quarterback.
That would be Fernando Mendoza, who dazzled the country in his first season at Indiana after transferring from California. Mendoza threw for a whopping 2,980 yards this season with 33 touchdown passes and just 6 interceptions, and now he’s going to take aim at an SEC defense, which will provide for great theatre for the college football world in the 4 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPN.
Mendoza could be menacing for Kane Wommack’s defense, and ESPN’s FPI believes Bama will have its hands full on New Year’s Day, giving the Crimson Tide only a 28.6% chance to hand Indiana its first loss of the season.
Yes, the Hoosiers are 13-0 coming into this showdown, while the Crimson Tide are the underdogs with the 11-3 record. The backdrop will be beautiful like always at the Rose Bowl, and on the field the nation will be treated to 1 of the most unique matchups in Playoff history.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
