On Tuesday night, four Big 12 teams checked in on the final College Football Playoff rankings ahead of Championship weekend.
This season will introduce the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff format, including the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large teams.
Here’s a look at where the Big 12 teams rank in the latest rankings, courtesy of the College Football Playoff committee.
Arizona State (10-2) earned the No. 15 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings after a blowout win over their in-state rival, Arizona. The 49-7 win capped off an incredible regular season for the Sun Devils, who advance to the Big 12 Championship Game on Saturday after being selected to finish dead last in the Preseason Media Poll.
Iowa State (10-2) is fresh off of a program-defining win against Kansas State, which gave the Cyclones their first 10-win season in program history. The team earned the No. 16 spot in the CFP Rankings, two spots ahead of last week’s placement at No. 18. They advance to face No. 15 Arizona State in the Big 12 title game, competing for their first football championship since the Big 12 Conference was formed in 1996.
BYU (10-2) was one of two teams that got the short end of the stick due to tiebreakers in the Big 12, alongside Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes. The No. 18 Cougars tied with Iowa State and Arizona State with a 7-2 conference record, but due to their Week 13 loss to Arizona State and a plethora of metrics that worked in Iowa State’s favor, BYU is absent from championship weekend.
Colorado (9-3) earned the 23rd spot on the CFP Poll, ahead of Army, but behind Syracuse. They are the fourth and final team to secure a spot inside the Top 25 out of the Big 12 Conference but find themselves significantly far out of the picture for an at-large bid.
One trending topic for Big 12 fans to consider is the placement of the Boise State Broncos, who hold the possibility of earning an auto-bid over the Big 12 Champion. Similar to the previous week, the top-raked Big 12 team trails Boise State by five spots, with Arizona State in reach of the Broncos at No. 15.
Finally, after their fourth season loss, Kansas State (8-4) has fallen out of the rankings and is out of the Big 12 Championship and College Football Playoff picture.
The selection show for the College Football Playoff takes place on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 12:00 p.m. CT.
