Smart move or sour grapes? Steve Sarkisian addresses 'Indiana Way' of scheduling

College football’s scheduling debate seems to be an issue that won’t go away, no matter how hard conferences try to control the teams their members play.

How many in-conference games? How many Power Four opponents should be required on each team’s schedule?

After Indiana rolled to a 16-0 record and a national championship this past season, the Hoosiers’ path − which began with home games against Old Dominion, Indiana State and Western Illinois − became a flashpoint in the discussion.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian seemed to give a begrudging hat tip to Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti in a recent podcast.

“There’s a lot of ways to find the path to make it,” Sarkisian told ESPN’s Greg McElroy on Always College Football. “Curt Cignetti, an amazing job at Indiana. What he’s done the last two years, there’s not a guy in our profession that can’t say, ‘What an unbelievable job.’

“The way he did it has been somewhat unconventional with the sixth-year seniors, the transfers, the veteran group, the way they practice. All those things. But one thing in there, he adjusted their schedule, too. They’ve got a fresh team, they’re playing a lot of players early in the year, they’re a happy team.”

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On the heels of the SEC struggling the past three years in the College Football Playoff, the conference restructured its scheduling requirements this year to play nine conference games. But coaches don’t seem to be happy about the additional SEC clash replacing a late-season (easily winnable) nonconference game.

“We can’t want to adopt the ‘Indiana Way’ but then, not adopt all of the ‘Indiana Way.’ But other people now are starting to follow suit,” Sarkisian said.

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“So to Coach Cignetti’s credit, everybody wants to impact our sport in some way, shape or form in a positive way. He’s impacting people because people now are starting to adjust their nonconference schedules because they’re seeing the value of another win as opposed to the value of the strength of your schedule.”