Week 14 Preview: Purdue

Prepare for Indiana's Week 14 matchup against the Purdue Boilermakers with a comprehensive BSB Preview!

Indiana needs to make a statement. The College Football Playoff committee, by dropping the Hoosiers five spots to No. 10, has laid a foundation for a Clemson or even a Texas A&M to leapfrog Indiana in the coming weeks. Fortunately for Indiana, the worst team in Power 4 football is coming to town. Purdue is rated 118th by SP+, 113th in FPI, and 119th by BCFtoys.com. All of these measures are worst in the power conferences, and Sagarin.com ratings suggest Purdue would be competitive against Incarnate Word and Illinois State. Indiana wants to prove it is a top-10 team this week, and Purdue is 0-4 against top-10 teams and lost those games, 195-17. That’s an average scoring deficit of 44.5 points; that’s the standard this weekend.

It’s going to be very cold, so bundle up!

In This Preview:

• Indiana’s SP+ Progress

• Advanced Stat Preview

• Big Ten Conversion Rates

• Big Ten Passing and Rushing Distributions

• Purdue OL Preview

• Purdue’s Key Contributors

• What BSB is Watching for

• Witt’s Wager: Indiana -29

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If you missed any of the content from Week 13 (Ohio State)), it is linked below. All three Week 1 newsletters are free to the public for those curious what is enclosed in typical BSB content. Some bye week content is also linked, in case you missed it.

• Week 13 Recap

• Week 13 Gameday Roundup

• Week 13 Preview

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Indiana’s SP+ Progression

The chart below conveys a weekly progression of ESPN SP+ percentile rankings in the FBS, indicating each season 2019-23 with lines and this 2024 season with bars. 

Note: Each week indicates Indiana’s ranking after the week’s game. For example, Indiana was in the 46th percentile after its game versus FIU in Week 1.

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Advanced Stat Preview

For an explanation of how the various algorithms (FPI, SP+, FEI) in this chart work, visit a previous Preview newsletter here.