The narrative about the Big 12 heading into the College Football Playoff that the conference was inferior not just to other major conferences such as the almighty SEC and the Big Ten, but even the ACC and perhaps non-power conferences such as the Mountain West, too.
But the Sun Devils (11-3) dispelled those notions with their gritty play and resilience in a 39-31 double-overtime Peach Bowl loss to two-touchdown favorite Texas Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. It was the closest and most compelling game of the playoffs thus far. ASU proved it belonged.
The Sun Devils did themselves proud and repped their new conference better than anyone probably expected. The Big 12 was a one-bid conference in the first-ever 12-team playoff. Should it have been? In hindsight, probably not.
Consider the other teams with cases: BYU and Iowa State. Well Iowa State defeated Miami in the Pop Tarts Bowl 42-41 and the Hurricanes, along with Alabama, were the first teams left out of the field. BYU clobbered conference foe Colorado 36-14 in an Alamo Bowl in which both teams were nationally ranked.
Oh, and BYU was the only team that defeated SMU in the regular season, and the Mustangs made the field despite beating two nationally ranked teams. Indiana made the field despite not beating a nationally ranked team. Heck, Indiana didn’t even make a conference title game. Neither of those teams was competitive in their playoff losses. Yes, BYU could have fared better judging by its bowl game performance.
Kansas State was another top-tier team in the conference and it defeated Rutgers 44-41 in the Rate Bowl.
A lot pundits singled out the lopsided nature of the other CFP games as a reason ASU and perhaps Boise State did not deserve a bye. Just seed the teams without regard to status as a conference champion. In the end ASU proved it deserved that first-round pass. It also boasted four wins over nationally ranked teams this season, highlighted by a 45-19 beatdown of Iowa State in the Big 12 title game that was the most impressive performance in any conference title game.
ASU went into the Peach Bowl with six straight wins, no doubt playing its best football of the season.
The bigger indicator of the conference’s reputation is that Mountain West champion Boise State was seeded one spot higher than ASU and the best game on its resume was actually the early loss to Oregon. It beat just one ranked team, UNLV.
Maybe it was because the expected powers, Utah and Oklahoma State, struggled so miserably that the conference was undervalued. Fans of the Big 12 hope that won’t be the case next season with the statement ASU made on a big stage.
The Sun Devils will surely go into next season nationally ranked, with the balance of the team back, led by quarterback Sam Leavitt, who is already getting Heisman Trophy buzz for his showing this season as a freshman.
That team picked to finish last this season? It should be the favorite come the fall.
The conference needs the perennial powers to be challengers again, and the rise of others such as ASU will help. The Sun Devils are set up for success like never before. And yes, ASU has had trouble sustaining something good when it had what looked like a breakout season in years past.
Energetic head coach Kenny Dillingham, just given a five-year contract extension, is set to be in the Valley long term. The community has rallied around him. Donors and influential boosters are behind him. His players love him.
Yes, dynamic running back Cam Skattebo — the talk of college football the past two weeks — is departing, but the balance of the team is coming back. There are only two starters on defense who have exhausted their eligibility; Skattebo is one of two on offense.
There have been no key defections to the transfer portal, either. After back-to-back 3-9 seasons, players couldn’t wait to leave Tempe. Now the culture and environment has shifted so much that players want to stay.
No doubt the loss still hurts, but the experience the players gained through the postseason run will help moving forward. The big stage will no longer be something new to them. Dillingham is also one who never stops learning and continues to self-evaluate. He will be a better coach moving forward than he has been the past two years, and that’s saying a lot.
Rest on his laurels? Celebrate the season? No, Dillingham is already out recruiting. No better time to do so than now.
The pop ASU got on the national stage with its run the last month will do wonders for the recruiting, too. ASU is a much more attractive destination than it was six months ago.
