What does Boise State's win mean for Arizona State's College Football Playoff hopes?
The No. 10 Boise State Broncos took care of business Friday night, beating No. 20 UNLV 21-7 in the Mountain West Conference championship game.
The victory clinched a berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff for the Broncos — and almost assuredly guaranteed a first-round bye.
The top-four ranked conference champions get first-round byes in the CFP, and Boise State entered the game in the fourth position, behind projected Big Ten champion Oregon, projected SEC champion Texas and projected ACC champion SMU.
No. 15 Arizona State can earn an automatic berth in the CFP with a win over No. 16 Iowa State on Saturday morning in the Big 12 championship game. But it's unlikely the Sun Devils will move ahead of Boise State and earn a first-round bye.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark took a shot at Boise State's ranking earlier this week, making a case that strength of schedule should be a bigger factor in the CFP Rankings.
"Strength of schedule should matter and wins against Power 4 opponents should matter — 74% of the Big 12 wins were against Power 4 opponents this season," Yormark said. "Meanwhile, the Group of 5 is 11-80. ... In no way should a Group of 5 champion be ranked above our champion."
But that's exactly what will happen when the final College Football Playoff Rankings are released on Sunday. With Boise State's victory, it's highly unlikely Arizona State or Iowa State will leapfrog Boise State and be ranked in the top 10.
If the Sun Devils beat Iowa State, they will likely be the No. 12 seed and play No. 5 Notre Dame in the first round. That game could be played as the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona — 30 minutes from Arizona State's campus.
Here's what the CFP Rankings look like heading into Saturday's conference championship games:
- Oregon
- Texas
- Penn State
- Notre Dame
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Tennessee
- SMU
- Indiana
- Boise State
- Alabama
- Miami
- Ole Miss
- South Carolina
- Arizona State
- Iowa State
- Clemson
- BYU
- Missouri
- UNLV
- Illinois
- Syracuse
- Colorado
- Army
- Memphis
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.