Indiana's Curt Cignetti Reacts to 1st CFP Rankings, Calls Out SEC Bias over Big Ten

Indiana might be the only Big Ten team without reason to complain about the initial College Football Playoff rankings, but head coach Curt Cignetti still wasn't happy with the overall picture.

"Come on," he said while laughing during his Wednesday radio show after he was asked for his thoughts on the rankings (h/t David Ubben of The Athletic).

"These people, and there's a whole bunch of them, they march out of the tent and they're given instructions on what to say and they follow the company line," he said in an apparent reference to the love the SEC received in the rankings and the conference's coverage. "And I don't need to go any further."

Indiana checked in at No. 4 in the first rankings despite having zero wins against any other teams in the Top 25. It lost to Ohio State in its only matchup against a team that is currently ranked, but the Buckeyes are eight spots lower at No. 12 despite the head-to-head result.

Ohio State has a second loss, which came in the nonconference portion of its schedule by a single point against Texas while the Hoosiers played North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky before Big Ten play.

Still, Indiana has played a number of teams above .500, as Cignetti pointed out:

He also criticized the coverage the SEC received and said on his radio show, "SEC gets a lot of love from ESPN and all their writers that they don't technically pay but march to their drum. And that's why you see all these SEC teams up there and some good two-loss teams from the Big Ten not quite as high."

Cignetti's comments come after the SEC received a number of favorable rankings.

UCLA, which is undefeated, is No. 8 and behind one-loss Georgia, two-loss Alabama, one-loss Kentucky and two-loss Texas. What's more, two-loss Ole Miss is also ahead of one-loss Notre Dame and two-loss Ohio State.

In all, the SEC has 10 teams compared to the Big Ten's six in the Top 25. The Big Ten may also have some trouble getting a high number of teams in the field, as three of those six teams are ranked 19th and below.

It is rather jarring considering the Big Ten's overall dominance in the modern-era of college football with NIL and the transfer portal. Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana have won the last three national championships, while the conference as a whole has been much better than the SEC in the actual CFP games:

Ultimately, the Hoosiers and perhaps the Bruins, Buckeyes and other Big Ten teams will have a chance to play things out on the field if they take care of their own games in November.

But Cignetti is frustrated with the initial rankings.