A matter of degree

 So, now we know, I guess. If football programs were canned goods down in the old bomb shelter, Notre Dame's would be a shelf or two higher than Indiana's at this point.

The big intrastate hoo-ha between went off in front of a capacity crowd and the entire nation last night, and it turned not to be much of a hoo-ha. Notre Dame rolled the Hoosiers 27-17, and it was never really a contest. The Irish, demonstrably better up front on both sides of the ball, simply lined up and did what they do, and the Hoosiers mostly were helpless to stop it.

It was a 27-3 blowout when Riley Leonard stuck it in the end zone one last time with 4:50 to play, after which Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman started dipping into his reserves and defensive coordinator Al Golden mostly packed away his pass-rush schemes. So Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke threw a touchdown pass to Myles Price and a two-point conversion to Elijah Sarratt, Indiana recovered an onside kick, and Rourke threw another touchdown pass to Omar Cooper Jr. with 25 seconds left to make it, as they say, respectable.

Didn't fool anyone who watched the show in its entirety.

Truth is, this one was on its way to over when Jeremiyah Love burst through a seam and fled down the sideline for the game's first score four minutes in, because Indiana never got even again. Love went on to 108 yards on just eight carries, the Irish run game ground out 193 yards on 5.5 yards a pop, and Notre Dame hogged the ball for 11 more minutes than Indiana.

Indiana fans will point out it might have been a different game had Indiana cashed an early pick of a Riley Leonard pass by D'Angelo Ponds, but the Hoosiers didn't. Sarratt got them close with an acrobatic grab of a Rourke throw, but then Rourke threw into coverage and Xavier Watts intercepted for Notre Dame at the 2-yard line.

You know what happened next: Love motored cross-country from Touchdown Jesus to Six City, and the Irish had the lightning bolt they needed to seize command.

Rourke finished the night 20-of-33 for 215 yards and the two garbage-time scores, but the Irish defensive front sacked him three times. Leonard ran for a score and threw for a score and was sacked once. So call the quarterback battle a draw.

Of everything else, you can say this: It's a matter of degree.

In one season, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has turned a chronically blah football program into a very good football program. But the Hoosiers are not quite where Notre Dame is yet.

No shame in that. No reason to think Cignetti won't get the Hoosiers there, either, and perhaps beyond.

When it was done last night some dopey people weighed in with some dopey takes, including an Associated Press columnist named Matt Hayes who wrote Indiana had no business in the CFP. This ignored the obvious fact that had the CFP left an 11-1 Big Ten team out of a 12-team bracket, it would have been even sillier than Hayes' assertion.

No, the Hoosiers belonged. But belonging is, again, a matter of degree. And those degrees hardly ever remain static.

Notre Dame, 12-1 and headed to the Sugar Bowl two years after going 8-4 and losing their first two games in Freeman's initial season, can attest to that.