College Football Playoff Predictions: Indiana Playing Near-Perfect Football

Nobody saw this coming, and that’s exactly why Monday night feels so big.

The College Football Playoff national championship game will feature No. 1 Indiana and No. 10 Miami, a matchup that would’ve sounded impossible back in August but now feels like the perfect ending to one of the sport’s most unpredictable seasons.

The Hurricanes were the final at-large team to make the 12-team field after the selection committee favored them over Notre Dame. While it’s not fair to judge the group after the fact — teams should be rewarded for how they performed during the regular season — Miami is certainly proving any doubters wrong. Mario Cristobal’s team has beaten Texas A&M, Ohio State and Ole Miss on its way to its first national championship game appearance since 2002.

Indiana, meanwhile, is the story of the season. Curt Cignetti has put together a team that might go down in history as one of the best college football teams of all time. This is the Hoosiers’ first-ever national championship game appearance and, quite frankly, they look unstoppable.

This will be a fun matchup — the astronomical ticket prices certainly indicate as much — and you know the vibes in Miami are bound to be out of control.

[CFP: The Ultimate Indiana-Miami CFP National Championship Lineup]

Here is my CFP national championship prediction:

CFP National Championship Game: No. 1 Indiana vs. No. 10 Miami (Monday, 7:30 p.m. ET)

Winner: Indiana

Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza celebrates with WR Omar Cooper Jr. after a touchdown in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)

At this point, it’s difficult to pick against undefeated Indiana. For one, the Hoosiers don’t make many mistakes, especially when it comes to turnovers and penalties. Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza is coming off a semifinal performance against Oregon in which he went 17-of-20 for 177 yards and five touchdowns. Yes, you read that right: Mendoza threw more touchdown passes than incompletions. And the defense has shut down some pretty good offenses, allowing a total of 35 points in the last three games against Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon.

Miami enters this game as the first team in the BCS and CFP eras to play a national championship in its home stadium — a real advantage and one that should be felt from kickoff. The Hurricanes have had the more dramatic path through the playoff, finding ways to survive close games, while Indiana has simply overwhelmed its opponents.

That battle-tested résumé could serve Miami well. But against Indiana, there’s no margin for error. The Hurricanes can’t afford to fall behind early. They must capitalize on every opportunity, win the line of scrimmage, play with consistent physicality, and execute at a high level to beat a Hoosiers team that has looked near-perfect throughout the playoff.

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her at @LakenLitman.

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