With Week 13 of the college football season in the books, there is plenty of speculation as to which teams will make the College Football Playoff. And when it comes to the Big 12 Conference, the race to the Championship Game is as crazy as any conference in the country, as expected.
But we do know that two teams in the Big 12 control their own destiny to get to the Big 12 Championship Game: Arizona State and Iowa State. If each team wins, they get to Arlington, Texas for a chance to punch a ticket to the Playoff.
So while there are still as many as eight teams technically in the Big 12 Championship Race, ESPN’s college football experts released their predictions for 12-team Playoff field, and all 13 experts predicted Arizona State to make the field.
The only difference is that some of the experts had Arizona State getting the final bye as the No. 4 seed in the playoff, while some had Arizona State with an at-large berth, giving Boise State the final of the four byes for conference champions.
Related: Three Takeaways From Arizona State’s 28-23 Win Over BYU
Arizona State’s Storybook Continues
The Sun Devils have now won back-to-back games over ranked teams after beating K-State in Manhattan and then taking down BYU on Saturday 28-23 to improve to 8-2 and 6-2 in Big 12 play. Cam Skattebo remains one of the most underrated stories in all of college football. Skattebo had 28 carries for 147 yards and three touchdowns on the afternoon. The former Sacramento State running back is further proof that there is plenty of FCS talent that can make it in the Power 4.
The Sun Devils did have to hang on for Dear life at the end, with a bizarre final couple of plays. Arizona State was on the BYU three-yard line up by five and instead of scoring, the Sun Devils tried to run out the clock by losing yards and running around. After a 4th-down pass out of bounds, there was still :01 second on the clock, which resulted in the fans, who had stormed the field, having to return to stands or sidelines. BYU had a Hail Mary to try and win it, but it came up short.
So now for Arizona State, all the Sun Devils need to do is beat Arizona and they will be playing for a conference championship for the first time since 2013 under Todd Graham.
