Arizona State's path to the College Football Playoff is now clear
The door opened a little wider for Kenny Dillingham's Arizona State team on Saturday.
The Sun Devils turned in their most complete performance of the season, routing Oklahoma State 42-21. Sam Leavitt passed for a season-high 304 yards, Cam Skattebo racked up 274 yards from scrimmage and ASU's defense allowed just 84 yards rushing.
With both Iowa State and Kansas State losing, the Sun Devils are just one game back in the race for a spot in the Big 12 football championship game.
And in the new world of a 12-team College Football Playoff, if you can win your conference championship, you're in.
The top five ranked conference champions will automatically earn berths in the CFP, with the top four receiving first-round byes. The next seven teams in the rankings will be added to the bracket as at-large teams.
With four games to play, Arizona State (6-2, 3-2) would need to win out and hope the one-loss teams in front of them stumble. It's not as far-fetched of a scenario as it was a week ago. The three teams in front of them — BYU, Iowa State and Colorado — all face tough tests.
Iowa State's final three games are against Cincinnati, Utah and Kansas State. Colorado has to travel to Lubbock, Texas next week to face Texas Tech. And BYU has to play rival Utah and Arizona State on the road.
After Saturday's chaos in the Big 12 here are the eight teams who still realistically have a shot at a spot in the Big 12 title game:
- BYU (5-0)
- Iowa State (4-1)
- Colorado (4-1)
- Kansas State (4-2)
- Texas Tech (4-2)
- Cincinnati (3-2)
- West Virginia (3-2)
- Arizona State (3-2)
And here is Arizona State's remaining schedule:
- vs. UCF
- at Kansas State
- vs. BYU
- at Arizona
Those are all winnable games, especially when you consider that Dillingham's team is clearly getting better.
Buckle up. The next four weeks in the Big 12 are going to be a roller-coaster ride.
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Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. One of his favorite memories was covering the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - the first BCS National Championship Game - at Sun Devil Stadium.