Welcome to the College Football Playoff, Arizona State.
The No. 15 Sun Devils emphatically won the Big 12 in their first year in the conference with a 45-19 win over Iowa State. ASU scored 35 straight points over the second and third quarters to turn the game into a rout thanks to three straight Iowa State turnovers.
Each of Arizona State’s three third-quarter touchdowns came off a turnover. Abu Sama fumbled on the first drive of the second half and ASU capitalized with a TD pass from Sam Leavitt to Xavier Guillory. On ISU’s first play of its next drive, Rocco Becht’s pass attempt bounced off the helmet of an offensive lineman and into the arms of defensive back Keith Abney II.
Three plays later, Leavitt found Guillory again in the end zone.
Cam Skattebo — who else? — then provided the exclamation point after Sama’s second fumble of the quarter when he scored on a 33-yard catch-and-run to give Arizona State a 35-point lead.
Skattebo ran all over Iowa State with 16 carries for 170 yards and had three total touchdowns. He opened the game with a 28-yard run and also had a 53-yard carry against an Iowa State defense that had struggled against the run all season long.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for the Sun Devils (11-2) in Kenny Dillingham’s second season. The former Oregon offensive coordinator was hired in Tempe in the wake of the rocky tenure of Herm Edwards. The ex-NFL coach was fired three games into his fifth season at the school as ASU went 3-9 in 2022. Edwards and current Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce were also the subject of an NCAA investigation into an improper recruiting scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ASU self-imposed a bowl ban in 2023 because of the investigation and was handed four years of probation in April. Earlier this fall, Pierce was given an eight-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA for his role.
The Sun Devils went 3-9 in 2023 and were the only team Colorado beat in the Pac-12 a season ago. That led to ASU being picked last in the Big 12’s preseason media poll.
Instead, Arizona State has now won six straight games after a loss at Cincinnati on Oct. 19. And three of its last four victories have come over teams who were ranked at the time. ASU put itself in prime position to make the Big 12 title game with a win at Kansas State in Week 12 before beating BYU by five in a chaotic ending in Week 13.
Skattebo is also a fringe Heisman candidate. He now has 263 carries for 1,568 yards and 19 rushing TDs while adding 37 catches for 508 yards and three receiving scores. Colorado’s Travis Hunter is the prohibitive favorite and Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty will undoubtedly be second behind Hunter. But Skattebo has a phenomenal case for third-place votes behind the other two stars.
The Sun Devils were the provisional No. 12 seed in the 12-team bracket heading into conference championship weekend since they were ranked outside the top 12.
It’s hard to see how ASU will be ranked at No. 12 after what happened on Saturday.
There’s a slight chance the committee could look so favorably upon the win and move ASU ahead of Boise State, which was provisionally the No. 4 seed at No. 10 in the committee’s rankings. But Boise State beat No. 20 UNLV by 14 on Friday night for the Mountain West title and has one fewer loss than Arizona State.
It reasons that the committee won’t ding Boise State for a two-score win in a game it led 21-0 at halftime, but Dillingham was campaigning for a bye after the game. He noted that Leavitt didn’t play in ASU’s loss to Cincinnati.
“We’re 11-1 with our quarterback, we should be treated like an 11-1 team,” Dillingham said after the game.
But it also should elevate Arizona State past the last seed. If SMU beats Clemson on Saturday night in the ACC title game and secures a first-round bye, Arizona State could be ranked at No. 10 or so on Sunday. That would still mean the Sun Devils would be on the road in the first round, but they’d avoid a trip to the top two at-large teams in the rankings.
If Clemson wins, Arizona State should be no lower than No. 4 in the bracket since the Tigers have three losses.
