Will Arizona State receive a bye in the College Football Playoff?
The Arizona State football team left no doubt on Saturday.
Favored by 2.5 points over Iowa State in the Big 12 championship, the Sun Devils dominated every aspect of the game in an impressive 45-19 victory over the Cyclones.
The Sun Devils racked up 464 yards of offense, averaged 12.2 yard per pass and forced three turnovers — and coach Kenny Dillingham pulled his starters early in the fourth quarter.
But was it enough to move from No. 15 in the College Football Rankings to No. 10 (or higher)? In order to receive a first-round by in the CFP, the Sun Devils would have to jump ahead of No. 10 Boise State (MWC champion) or No. 8 SMU (projected ACC champion). The top-four ranked conference champions receive byes.
After the game, Dillingham lobbied for the Sun Devils to receive a first-round bye from the CFP committee.
“Last year, they left a team out because of a quarterback (then-undefeated Florida State). We're 11-1 with our starting quarterback, having beat four ranked teams and we won the Big 12 championship,” Dillingham said after the game. “We made a standard that the quarterback is that valuable ... I definitely think we should host a game.”
Dillingham is referring to the one game Arizona State (11-2) played without starting quarterback Sam Leavitt — a 24-14 road loss to Cincinnati.
Arizona State certainly has the resume. The Sun Devils have won six consecutive games, with three of those wins coming over ranked teams — No. 16 Kansas State, No. 14 BYU and No. 16 Iowa State. ASU has four wins over ranked teams on the season.
Boise State has defeated only one ranked team this season, and that came on Friday night when they defeated No. 20 UNLV 21-7 in the Mountain West Conference championship game. Outside of that, the Broncos' best win was over Washington State, a team that finished 8-4 and lost to New Mexico, Oregon State and Wyoming to end the season.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark made his feelings known earlier in the week, taking a shot at Boise State's strength of schedule.
"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."
"Obviously I challenge what I've seen to date, and again I'm going to lean on strength of schedule. I don't think it's played out the way it should. But I do have trust in the committee that ultimately we'll land where we're supposed to land. And, you know, that ultimately will mean we'll get a bye. ... It will come down to the selection committee making that decision, but I'm hopeful it will be the right one."
The final CFP rankings and bracket will be released Sunday at 10 a.m. MST. Here's what the current rankings look like:
- 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.