Updated college bowl predictions: Arizona State upgraded to Holiday Bowl
Arizona State is officially bowl eligible.
Saturday's 42-21 win over Oklahoma State was the sixth of the season for the Sun Devils, which assures them of a spot in a postseason bowl game. Now it's just a matter of how high they can climb.
Arizona State (6-2, 3-2) is just one game back of second place in the Big 12 and still has an outside shot of earning a berth in the Big 12 football championship game. The Sun Devils would need to win out and get some help, but it's still on the table.
If ASU somehow gets into the Big 12 title game, and wins it, they automatically qualify for the new 12-team College Football Playoff. 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.
If the Sun Devils don't get into the Big 12 title game, they're hoping for a lucrative bowl bid. And the more victories they accumulate, the better the bowl game.
Last week, CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm predicted the Sun Devils would get a bid to the Sun Bowl to play Louisville. This week, Palm predicts ASU will play in the highly-coveted Holiday Bowl vs. Pittsburgh.
Why is the Holiday Bowl an upgrade? For starters, the payout is significantly higher. Last year the Sun Bowl paid out $4,550,000 and the Holiday Bowl paid out $6,532,700.
The best non-CFP bowl for the Sun Devils would be the Alamo Bowl, which paid out $8,252,740 last year.
The Holiday Bowl retained its existing partnership with the Pac-12 for 2024 and 2025. Even though the Pac-12 has disbanded, the 10 teams who left the conference will still play in Pac-12 affiliated bowls the next two seasons and not in bowl tie-ins with their new conferences. The Holiday Bowl will feature a top-tier team from the former Pac-12 vs. a top-tier team from the ACC.
Here are Palm's latest college football bowl projections for former Pac-12 and current Big 12 teams:
Holiday Bowl: Arizona State vs. Pittsburgh
Sun Bowl: Duke vs. Washington
Alamo Bowl: Kansas State vs. Washington State
Texas Bowl: TCU vs. LSU
Pop-Tarts Bowl: SMU vs. Texas Tech
Las Vegas Bowl: South Carolina vs. Colorado
Liberty Bowl: Baylor vs. Vanderbilt
Rate Bowl: West Virginia vs. Michigan
Armed Forces Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Charlotte
Los Angeles Bowl: UNLV vs. USC
Independence Bowl: Army vs. Oregon State
Cure Bowl: East Carolina vs. UCF
More Arizona State & Big 12 Analysis
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.