The value of a Bucket

 So, OK, then. Tenth.

Tenth in this week's College Football Playoff rankings; 11th seed in the latest projected bracket. Still in, despite the fevered conspiracy theories of people like, oh, I don't know, me, for instance.

I was convinced the CFP had it in for your Indiana Hoosiers, that a millisecond after they walked out of Columbus with a 38-15 loss to Ohio State the pollsters would kick them out of the party. But, nah. Apparently whoever runs this deal doesn't hate the interlopers from Bloomington that much.

Tenth, they dropped Indiana to. Which seems just about right.

Know what else seems about right?

That the Old Oaken Bucket suddenly is more than just an unglamorous trophy fought over by a pair of in-state rivals who, let's face it, have their own share of un-glamour in their football histories.

But Indiana is 10-1 now and Purdue is 1-10, and, if the CFP playoff doesn't exactly hang in the balance, it's right around the corner from hanging in the balance. Should Purdue jump up and get after it against its most bitter rival, it could ruin IU's precarious hold on a playoff spot. 

An 11 seed, after all, lives next door to a 12 seed. And a 12 seed lives next door to an out-in-the-cold seed.

Think Purdue wouldn't want to make that happen? 

Think Indiana doesn't want to lay the wood to the Boilermakers because, well, they're the Boilermakers, but also because it needs style points to stay inside the CFP rope?

There was a lot of yapping about the CFP expanding from four to 12 teams this season, and as usual a fair amount of it was negative. But now the season is wrapping up, and look what a 12-team field has done for college football.

It's made more games involving more teams mean something. That's what it's done.

Certainly it's added value to an old oaken bucket, and a touch of drama to what promises to be singularly undramatic. By every conceivable metric, Indiana should be able to name its score against the hapless Boilers, but what if Purdue decides to put up a fight? How blowout-y a blowout will it take for Indiana not to slip again?

Will 40-7 do it? Or 50-14? Or, God forbid, what if it's only 42-20 or something?

I suspect it won't be, because IU coach Curt Cignetti does not seem like a man who lets 'em up easy. If he could drop 75 or 100 on Purdue, he'd do it. Especially with what's at stake here.

I'm gonna say that doesn't happen. I'm gonna say IU wins 52-7, 55-10, something like that. Enough, presumably, to keep those teams crowding the Hoosiers' bumper -- a two-loss Clemson team, perhaps, or (God forbid) even three-loss Alabama -- from overtaking them. 

Anyway ... we'll see. And won't the seeing make Saturday worth the while?