Dissed

 No, no, no, Indiana. This is not how you do it.

You can't complain long and loudly about being dissed by your conference, and then fail to back it up.

You can't slyly cover up the Big Ten logos on your uniforms -- really (wink), it wasn't intended as a shot at the conference (wink, wink) -- and then go out and show the world exactly why the conference dissed you.

You can't say you should have been in a New Year's Day bowl game instead of those posers from Northwestern, and then lose to a sub-.500 team in the bowl game you so publicly were unhappy about playing.

And, yes, your quarterback (Jack Tuttle) played with a separated shoulder, which was brave on his part and stupid on the Indiana coaching staff's part. But, still

Still, you lost your bowl game to a 4-5 football team.

Lost to Ole Miss 26-20 in a game Indiana never led, and maybe now it's time to re-examine the Hoosiers' pregame strategy of bellyaching about having to play in the cruddy Outback Bowl against cruddy Ole Miss. I don't know if coaches still do this -- it seems kind of hokey and old-timey rah-rah in the corporate 2020s -- but I can imagine Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin wallpapering his locker room with that stuff. 

Looky here, men. These Indiana people think it's an insult to have to play us. They think we're not fit to shine their shoes. They think they're just gonna come in here and garage-sale us like we're, I don't know, Directional Hyphen U. or something. What do YOU think about that, men?

No, sir. Likely not the smart play for Indiana, even if the Big Ten did diss them because they were, you know, Indiana, and Indiana's never been good at football. So that 6-1 record, why, it's just a big ol' fluke.

If only Indiana could have proved otherwise.

But it didn't.

Which reminds me of that scene in "Brian's Song" after Piccolo gets sick and the Bears dedicate the Rams game to him, and then of course they lose. After which Piccolo reminds them that, hey, dummies, if you dedicate a game to someone, you're then supposed to win the game.

Precisely.