The Biggest X-Factor in the CFP National Championship
Biggest x-factor that will decide the CFP National Championship
The 2025 Indiana football team is not lacking in confidence.
It’s hard to blame the top-seeded Hoosiers, who enter the College Football Playoff national championship game on Monday, Jan. 19, as the lone undefeated team left standing.
In two CFP games, Indiana has outscored No. 9 Alabama and No. 5 Oregon by a combined margin of 94-25.
The sheer dominance shown by the Hoosiers in 2025 has drawn comparisons to other historically great teams in college football history, one of them being the 2019 LSU team. Led by unanimous All-American selections in quarterback Joe Burrow and receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson, the Tigers are widely considered to be among the best teams in college football history, and the best of the CFP era.
That 2019 Tigers team beat opponents — including seven ranked in the top 10 at the time they played — by an average of 26.5 points per game en route to an undefeated CFP championship season.
When asked during Orange Bowl media day how the 2025 Indiana squad would fare against that star-laden LSU team, Hoosiers wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. gave his team a slight edge — and a score prediction, to boot.
“That’s tough,” Cooper said, before pausing to think. “I would say 24-21 Indiana.”
Along with the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Burrow, the Tigers also had star running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, as well as future NFL defensive standouts such as Patrick Queen, Grant Delpit and Derek Stingley Jr.
Like those Tigers, Indiana is full of future NFL talent, including a Heisman-winning QB in Fernando Mendoza, wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, and standouts in Cooper, defensive back D’Angelo Ponds and defensive lineman Mikail Kamara.
Cooper led Indiana with 64 receptions for 866 yards and 13 touchdowns, while adding 74 yards rushing and a touchdown.
