My backyard is carpeted with freshly fallen leaves, the air is getting cooler and we’re only 33 days away from what should — fingers crossed — be Indiana’s first game day of the year.
That means it’s time to start thinking about Tom Allen’s Hoosiers winning several Big Ten matchups this season.
Luckily, ESPN’s computers have done the heavy lifting for us. The Worldwide Leader’s College Football Power Index has been updated to reflect Saturday’s schedule reveal and show how the Hoosiers might fare. Developed seven 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.