Does anyone really want to face the Sun Devils in the College Football Playoff? Someone will have to now.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Forget about rankings, analytics or any other number they might place next to Arizona State’s name. Instead, go straight to the “eye test,” or check the scoreboard. Does anyone really want to face the Sun Devils in the College Football Playoff?
Someone will have to after ASU clobbered Iowa State 45-19 on Saturday in the Big 12 title game. The Sun Devils have won their last two games by a combined score of 94-26.
They entered this week’s action at No. 15 in the CFP rankings, meaning they will need help to be among the four best-ranked conference champions, all of whom receive first-round byes, by the time the title games are over Saturday night.
Whether it receives a bye or not when the brackets are revealed Sunday, ASU will be in as champion of the conference it joined this year after leaving the Pac-12.
A preseason Big 12 media poll had the Sun Devils finishing last in their new league. After finishing first, coach Kenny Dillingham referenced ASU’s record with Sam Leavitt in the lineup in lobbying for good seeding.
“We’re 11-1 with our quarterback, and we’re Big 12 champs,” Dillingham said. “I think we should be treated like an 11-1 team.”
They came into the week five spots behind Boise State, which won the Mountain West Conference on Friday and is in position for a bye. It means Arizona State’s hopes to skip the first round probably rest on whether No. 17 Clemson can upset No. 8 SMU in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game later Saturday.
It’s that ACC game that will send the most dominos falling in the 12-team playoff bracket.
If SMU wins, and the selection committee doesn’t drastically change its thinking, then No. 11 Alabama (9-3) would appear to be safely in, while Miami (10-2), which finished a spot behind the Crimson Tide despite one fewer loss, will likely be out.
But if Clemson pulls an upset, the committee will be left to choose between SMU and Alabama.
Those byes, by the way, are causing headaches.
Because they go to conference champions, not the top four teams, then based on last week’s rankings, byes would belong to teams ranked No. 1, 2, 8 and 10.
There’s one scenario where Clemson and Georgia could each finish 9-3 and Clemson could get a bye while the Dawgs play a first-round game on the road. Georgia beat Clemson 34-3 in Week 1.
“When I hear people talk about that positioning, I think what they’re actually saying is not a discussion about the committee’s placement of the team, but should we be providing these lower-seed conference champions that access point?” Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey said this week. “That’s been discussed before. I think that starts to illustrate one of the new issues” the CFP has.
In the SEC, it’s No. 2 Texas vs. No. 5 Georgia. Sadly, Bevo will not be in the building. The winner gets a bye and a championship. The loser should still be in, but if that loser is Georgia, the Dawgs could be on the road for the first round. (See above.)
In the Big Ten, Oregon, top-ranked and the only undefeated team in the country, is in, too. Saturday’s game against No. 3 Penn State is for the Big Ten trophy and a first-round bye.
If Penn State prevails, then there’s an argument that the Nittany Lions could end up with that top seed.
A handful of teams aren’t playing this weekend and don’t have much to worry about. No. 4 Notre Dame should get a home game. (Maybe the Irish, an independent, should get a bye, too, but that’s a topic for another day.)
No. 9 Indiana, one of four Big Ten teams projected to make the playoff, will probably be on the road.
In between, there is the matter of No. 6 Ohio State and No. 7 Tennessee. Last week’s projected bracket paired the 10-2 teams in a first-round game to be played at the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio.
But their rankings were flip-flopped from the way voters for the AP Top 25 placed them, and the difference matters a lot. Like Ohio Stadium, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville also seats 100,000-plus and provides one of the best home-field advantages in the game.
All of which led Vols athletic director Danny White to weigh in, asking for a return to computer-based rankings that were used more than a decade ago in a previous iteration of the postseason (the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS).
“I will criticize the fact that we don’t have a more objective, computer-based rankings system that just makes it very clear,” White said in an interview with UT’s radio personalities. “Everyone understands what the parameters are and it is what it is. I think it would leave a lot less consternation on the back end that we’re seeing all across the country right now.”