BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — So far, the fate of Indiana’s College Football Playoff rankings has followed the path laid out for them by the Associated Press’ top 25 voters. And that means the Hoosiers could be home in the College Football Playoff.

Two days after Indiana moved up to No. 5 in the AP Top 25, the Hoosiers earned the same spot in the College Football Playoff rankings.

That changed the calculus a bit for the Hoosiers. With the four top-ranked conference champions getting a bye to the quarterfinals, Indiana would be the No. 7 seed in the College Football Playoff bracket. That means the Hoosiers would host a game, currently against No. 9 ranked but No. 10 seed Alabama.

Of course, Indiana’s goal is to make the Big Ten championship game and have a chance to earn the bye and be a possible No. 1 overall seed.

However, a nice consolation prize would be hosting a home playoff game.

We’ll focus on that as we review the remaining season storylines for the Hoosiers.

If Indiana wins all of its remaining games

• Nothing has changed from last week. Indiana wouldn’t be able to play at home, but it would get a much bigger reward. The Hoosiers would get that valuable quarterfinal bye as Big Ten champions.

Assuming the Hoosiers would face current No. 1 Oregon in the Big Ten championship game, Indiana would pick up wins over Ohio State and Oregon.

An undefeated Indiana would be the No. 1 team in the country and the top seed in the College Football Playoff if that were to happen. Indiana would likely also be tasked with playing its quarterfinal game in the Rose Bowl. It would be a Cinderella story come to life for Indiana.

If Indiana goes 2-0 in the regular season, but loses the Big Ten title game

• Indiana would be in the field, but would it still host? It would depend on what happens elsewhere, but it wouldn’t be out of the question.

The Hoosiers would earn a high-quality road victory at Ohio State on November 23. Their only loss would be to Oregon. For one-loss teams, that’s a tough resume to achieve.

Indiana’s hosting possibilities would depend on how the teams surrounding it in the CFP rankings aren’t the top-ranked teams in their conference — No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Penn State, No. Tennessee 7, No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 10 Alabama – finished its season.

Penn State and Notre Dame are most likely to lead the standings in their remaining games, but would they at this point have the resume to overtake Indiana with a win over Ohio State and a loss to Oregon? Maybe Notre Dame could, but probably not Penn State.

In the SEC, Texas still has to play Texas A&M and Tennessee has to play Georgia. Alabama has an easier path, but a road game at Oklahoma is at least somewhat of a challenge.

One factor that could possibly hurt Indiana in terms of hosting a game would be if there was an upset in the SEC Championship Game, depending on what combination of teams would be in that game.

There are still eight teams mathematically alive to play in this match. Right now, Tennessee and the winner of the Texas-Texas A&M game have the cleanest path, but it’s by no means simple. Three SEC teams will be eliminated from this chase on Saturday, and the picture will go from muddy to just cloudy.

With Texas ahead of Indiana in the current standings, a Longhorns loss to Texas A&M would help the Hoosiers’ cause.

If Indiana loses at Ohio State and doesn’t make the Big Ten title game

• What about hosting a game? That would likely depend on the nature of Indiana’s loss to Ohio State.

If the Hoosiers lose a close game to the Buckeyes and none of the teams closest to them in the polls do anything impressive? The Hoosiers probably won’t fall far, if at all.

If the Hoosiers get blown out by the Buckeyes? Indiana will take a major hit in the CFP rankings that will itself jeopardize its playoff hopes, much less being a playoff host.

Witness how the committee handled Georgia this week. After the Bulldogs lost 28-10 at Ole Miss, Georgia fell from No. 3 to No. 12 and was left out of the field as the fifth-best conference champion (No. 13 Boise State) gets a automatic offer.

A 10-15 point loss for the Hoosiers? Indiana would likely remain in the CFP rankings, but hosting a game would depend on what happened to the teams around them in the rankings and how the conference championship games played out elsewhere.

If Indiana loses at Ohio State, but still makes the Big Ten title game

• If Indiana loses at Ohio State, the Hoosiers would need a lot of help to make the Big Ten championship game.

As noted a week ago, a path to the Big Ten championship game can be forged, but it’s a rocky path that requires a fair amount of divine intervention.

Ohio State is projected to lose one additional game among the following contests: Northwestern at Wrigley Field (this game is Saturday, so it would take place before Indiana’s trip to Columbus) or Michigan at home. This is a favorable route for the Buckeyes.

If the Buckeyes lost one more game, it would put Penn State back into a tiebreaker with the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers and Nittany Lions don’t play head-to-head, and they would share the same loss to a common opponent (Ohio State), but Penn State’s stronger Big Ten schedule (the next tiebreaker) would give the advantage to the Nittany Lions. against Hoosiers in a head-to-head tiebreaker.

So Penn State should also lose another game. Penn State plays at Purdue, Minnesota, and finishes with a home game against Maryland. The game against the Golden Gophers is where Penn State would be most vulnerable, but Penn State will be favored.

Oregon could also give the Hoosiers the lead by losing two games, as unlikely as that may seem. The Ducks play at Wisconsin and finish at home against Washington. Neither team is easy, but neither team is a powerhouse either.

Still there?

If all of this happened and the Hoosiers played in Indianapolis on Dec. 7, it would give Indiana a chance to clinch the automatic Big Ten berth, but it would also carry the risk of playoff elimination if the Hoosiers lost the game championship. .

An Indiana team with two losses, even with those losses to Ohio State and likely Oregon, would have a hard time qualifying for the CFP. The two losses in this scenario should be close for the Hoosiers to give the committee something to do and keep Indiana high enough to make them a two-loss team. It would also depend on friendly results elsewhere.

If Indiana loses to Ohio State, the less risky, but also less possible reward, path is to simply avoid the Big Ten championship game altogether and maintain one-loss status.

If Indiana loses to Ohio State and Purdue

• Indiana’s CFP hopes would be over. There are too many chasing teams that will have at least two losses and none of them would suffer a loss as damaging as a home loss to a one-win Purdue team would be. Indiana was going bowling, probably Citrus or Reliaquest Bowl.

Fortunately for Hoosiers, this is a distant scenario.