Not trying beat a dad horse but even Richard Cross agrees with me...

[smootness]

Drop the Indiana. Let's make it TCU. Beatable now (they went 4-8), recognizable name, BCS school, close enough that some of our fans could go if it was a home and home. 2 things it accomplishes:
1. Solid out-of-conference win over a recognizable name. Good enough to not be a cupcake, but not so good that we shouldn't win the game (like Oklahoma St.). You could still schedule 3 other cupcakes and not end up on one of those "most laughable out-of-conference schedule" lists.
2. Davis Wade is about as full as it would be for an SEC game. I know more casual fans would be much more likely to go to watch MSU/TCU than MSU/Jackson St. or South Alabama.

We tried this with Georgia Tech, Oregon, and even Houston. Problem is, by the time we played them, they were freaking good and they beat us.

You can't guarantee what a team will look like 3 years down the road when these things are usually set up. TCU, with Gary Patterson at the helm, would be just as likely to be a top 15 team again by the time they came around as a 4-6 win team.

Heck, we even sort of tried it with Southern Miss (a lot of college football fans know they've been a good program); they won 12 games 2 years ago and almost made a BCS bowl. Now they've won 1 in the last 2 years and everybody is considering them one of the 'cupcakes' on our schedule that we need to avoid scheduling 4 of.

It's simply not that easy to try to set up schools who aren't too bad but also not too good.