Penn State vs. Indiana in the CFP? The Intrigue Behind a Potential First-Round Playoff Matchup

MINNEAPOLIS — Heather Dinich of ESPN has a very interesting first-round match-up in her latest College Football Playoff projections. Her prediction:

Penn State (now 10-1, ranked No. 4 in the latest AP poll) hosting Indiana (10-1, No. 10) in Beaver Stadium on Friday, Dec. 20 (8 p.m., ABC/ESPN) or Saturday, Dec. 21 at noon (TNT), 4 p.m. (TNT) or 8 p.m. (ABC/ESPN).

Dinich has Penn State — which plays Maryland at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Beaver Stadium in its regular season finale — as the CFP No. 6 seed. She has Indiana, 38-15 losers at Ohio State on Saturday and now also 10-1, as the CFP No. 11 seed. The Hoosiers play 1-10 Purdue, the Big Ten 18th-place cellar dweller.

Dinich knows her stuff. She covered Penn State football for Centre Daily Times years ago, and these days may be the most dialed-in national media member focused on the College Football Playoff. 

Dinich also knows Indiana University. She got her undergraduate degree in journalism at IU, and cut her journalism teeth there covering some crazy times involving Bobby Knight and the Hoosiers. So, she knows both schools well. Very well. Through the years, in person, I have heard her only say good things about Penn State. It’s kind of funny to read that she has an SEC bias.

Dinich saw the Nittany Lions’ success coming. She visited campus and Franklin & Co., last April, to do some advance work and write about Penn State’s CFP potential in 2024. (She’s also a genuine good egg; she spoke to my Penn State class, on one condition: She could bring along her husband and sons to watch.) She was on the record over the summer calling Penn State her “sleeper” pick for the 2024 season.

PUT HIS NAME ON IT

This potential match-up, if it happens, comes with oodles of intrigue, namely:

TOM ALLEN, Penn State’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, was Indiana’s head coach from 2017 to 2023. He was fired on Nov. 27, 2023, and four days later Indiana hired Curt Cignetti, who was 52-9 at James Madison. Penn State hired Allen on Dec. 19, after a lengthy interview process. (Among the other candidates who were seriously considered was former PSU defensive back and current USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.)

Allen has done an exemplary job maintaining the standards established by Manny Diaz when he was the Penn State D-coordinator for two seasons (2022-23). Under Allen in 2024, the Nittany Lions are ranked No. 5 nationally in total defense (273.4 yards per game) and No. 7 in points allowed per game (14.6), not far off the rankings Diaz had as PSU DC last season — the nation’s No. 1 total defense (247.6 yards) and No. 3 in scoring (13.5 points).

(These all are Bob Shoopian numbers; in Franklin’s first two seasons at Penn State, Shoop was the defensive coordinator. And a darn good one. Super smart, too. In 2014, the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 2 in total defense, at 279 yards, and No. 7 in points allowed, at 18.6.)

PAT KRAFT, the Penn State athletic director, was a walk-on linebacker at Indiana in the late 1990s, then stuck around to earn a master’s in sports administration and a doctorate in sport management. Kraft held a number of titles in the Indiana athletic department, including senior assistant AD, and also taught at Indiana. (He was a guest lecturer in my Penn State class this fall; the students absolutely loved him). Kraft left Indiana in 2011 for a senior level AD position at Loyola. Kraft’s extensive time at IU did not coincide with that of Allen, who arrived as an assistant coach in 2016.

CURT CIGNETTI, the Hoosiers’ outspoken, confident and successful first-year head coach, is a native of Pittsburgh. He was a grad assistant at Pitt, quarterback coach at Temple, QB/tight ends coach in a return to Pitt and head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Google him: As head coach at IUP, Cignetti compiled a 53–17 record, with three NCAA playoff appearances and two conference championships.

His late father, FRANK CIGNETTI SR., was a Pennsylvania native and is in the College Football of Fame with a record of 199-77-1. He was head coach at West Virginia from 1976-79, and head coach at IUP from 1986-2005.

MORE ON ALLEN

Last week, James Franklin used two media availabilities to sing the praises of Allen, who the head coach said was not getting the requisite props for the Nittany Lions’ success on defense:

MONDAY, Franklin said: “I don’t think Tom Allen and the defensive side of the ball is getting enough credit for how good of defense we’re playing.”

WEDNESDAY, Franklin added: “I think what happens sometimes is — I don’t care what profession you’re in — depending on who you follow plays a role in how you’re perceived. [Tom] follows Manny Diaz, and we had one of the top defenses in the country, so you come in here, and I think defensively we were ranked anywhere between 2, 3 or 4. So unless you’re No. 1, it doesn’t feel like you got a whole lot better. But, I think he’s done a really good job of coming in here and adapting. We have one of the best defenses in the country. I think our defense is our highest-rated unit. And, no one’s talking about it.”

Click here to read my Tom All(en)-22 on when he was hired last December. A few highlights:

+ Allen had a record of 33-49 overall and 18-43 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers won just three Big Ten Conference games out of 27 in 2021-23. Allen’s biggest loss during that span came in 2022, when Indiana QB Michael Penix Jr. transferred to the University of Washington. They were 3-9 in 2023. In 2020, Allen was named AFCA Coach of the Year as the Hoosiers hit a high-water mark of No. 7 on their way to a 6-2 record. 

+ Allen was 1-6 as Indiana’s head coach against Penn State, punctuated by a controversial 36-35 overtime win over Penn State — Penix Jr. was credited with a successful diving two-point conversion to secure the win — in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

+ Allen received a contract buyout of $15.5 million when he was fired by Indiana. A week ago, Cignetti signed a new eight-year contract that runs through the 2032 season. Indiana will pay him an average of $8 million per year with an annual $1 million retention bonus, putting the total value of the new contract at $72 million.

+ Indiana and Penn State did not meet each in the 2024 regular season. Future games between Penn State and Indiana, with exact dates to be announced: 2025 (Beaver Stadium), 2027 (Memorial Stadium) and 2028 (Beaver Stadium). They are not scheduled to play in the regular season in 2026.

PSU DC’S UNDER CJF