Updated college bowl predictions: Arizona State vs. Nebraska in the Rate Bowl
Coming off a 24-14 Big 12 road loss to Cincinnati, the Arizona State Sun Devils (5-2) are still one victory away from bowl eligibility.
With a bye week coming, ASU's next opportunity to secure its sixth win will be Nov. 2 at Oklahoma State.
According to ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI) the Sun Devils are expected to win two more games this season: at home vs. UCF on Nov. 9 and their season finale at rival Arizona on Nov. 30. If the predictions come true, Arizona State would finish 7-5 and be in position to accept a bowl bid.
In the latest CBS Sports college football bowl projections from Jerry Palm, the Sun Devils are slotted for the Rate Bowl vs. Nebraska on Dec. 26. Formerly called the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, the name was changed after the mortgage company rebranded.
The Rate Bowl will be played about 10 miles West of Arizona State's campus at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. Home to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chase Field will be transformed from a Major League Baseball stadium into a football venue. It's the only bowl to feature a Big 12 team vs. a Big Ten team. Kansas beat UNLV 49-36 in the 2023 Rate Bowl.
In last week's bowl projections, the Sun Devils were slotted for the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, vs. Syracuse. The Sun Bowl is in the final year of six-year contracts with the ACC and Pac-12. 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.
That means Arizona State will be eligible to be selected for the Alamo, Holiday, Las Vegas, Sun, Los Angeles and Independence bowls. If they're not selected for any of those bowls, they will be eligible to slot into a Big 12 bowl.
Here are Palm's latest projections for former Pac-12 and current Big 12 teams:
Rate Bowl: Arizona State vs. Nebraska
Holiday Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Utah
Alamo Bowl: Kansas State vs. Washington State
Independence Bowl: Army vs. Oregon State
Sun Bowl: Syracuse vs. Arizona
Texas Bowl: Texas Tech vs. LSU
Pop-Tarts Bowl: Notre Dame vs. TCU
Las Vegas Bowl: South Carolina vs. Colorado
Liberty Bowl: West Virginia vs. Vanderbilt
Armed Forces Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Tulane
Los Angeles Bowl: UNLV vs. USC
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.