ARLINGTON, Texas — No. 15 Arizona State made its case for a top-four seed in the College Football Playoff after a 45-19 domination of No. 16 Iowa State to claim its first Big 12 championship.
The 11-2 Sun Devils were projected as a No. 12 seed after last week’s rankings with Boise State, which won the Mountain West on Friday night, projected at No. 4. The top four seeds are required to be conference champions. As the top Group of 5 qualifier, the Broncos would keep that No. 4 seeding if they ranked higher than the Big 12’s champion in the final CFP rankings.
After the game, ASU coach Kenny Dillingham said the precedent the CFP selection committee made last year with Florida State after Jordan Travis’ injury means Arizona State should be ranked higher. One of ASU’s two losses came this year at Cincinnati on Oct. 19 when starting quarterback Sam Leavitt was out with an injury (the Sun Devils’ other loss was a 30-22 loss at Texas Tech in their first Big 12 game).
“Last year they left a team out because of a quarterback,” Dillingham said. “We’re 11-1 with our starting quarterback, having beat four ranked teams, having won the Big 12 championship. So I do think because we’ve made a standard that the quarterback is that valuable, I think there should be a real chance that we get a first-round bye and I definitely think we should host a game.”
The Sun Devils, picked to finish last in the 16-team Big 12 in the preseason media poll after a 3-9 finish in coach Kenny Dillingham’s first season last year, instead won the league, the first power conference team to do it in its first season since Virginia Tech won the ACC in its inaugural season in 2004. Dillingham bluntly said “no” when asked if he knew he could turn the program around this quickly.
“I don’t know if any team’s ever accomplished being picked 16th out of 16 and then winning a championship,” Dillingham said.
Iowa State, seeking its first conference title since 1912, was overpowered by the Sun Devils — and running back Cam Skattebo in particular. The Sun Devils led 24-10 at the half. then forced three turnovers — two fumbles and an interception — in the third quarter to finish off the Cyclones.
Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said after the game that he thought the Big 12 wouldn’t be in consideration for a second playoff spot, saying he didn’t expect an at-large bid from the selection committee.
“Yeah, I don’t. That’s the reality of that situation,” Campbell said. “The reality from our end is we had some opportunities late in the season to put ourselves in the best situation. Those are great lessons learned, and we’ll grow with it.”
Skattebo had a 28-yard run on the first play of the game, then added 47- and 53-yard runs in the second quarter to finish the first half with 10 carries for 140 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with nine forced broken tackles, punctuating his scoring runs with the Heisman Trophy pose. He also caught a 33-yard touchdown from Sam Leavitt in the third quarter.
Dillingham said he believed Skattebo should be a Heisman finalist in New York along with Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty.
“Turn on the tape. I mean he’s really good. He’s good enough to be there,” Dillingham said. “I don’t know what else you can do to put your name in the race. Obviously there’s two other guys that are really, really high on that list and I don’t know if he should ever surpass those guys, but should he be on that list? Should he have the opportunity to go there? Yes.”
Skattebo finished with 170 yards on 16 carries and Leavitt went 12-of-17 for 219 yards and three touchdowns, the other two to Xavier Guillory.
Leavitt and Guillory heaped praise on Skattebo after the game, with Leavitt calling him “the flat-out most dominant player” in the country. Skattebo, who transferred from Sacramento State to ASU before the 2023 season, said he did the Heisman pose because he deserves to be there.
“I’ve been disrespected my whole life,” Skattebo said. “I’ve always been the underdog and nobody respects the fact that I’m the best running back in the country and I’m going to stand on that. If people want to disrespect that, I’m going to keep going and I’m going to keep proving people wrong … Winning the Heisman or losing the Heisman, I should still be in that situation.”
An hour before the game kicked off, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark met with reporters days after complaining that the “[CFP selection] committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus résumés.” He said 74% of the Big 12’s wins were against other power conferences this year, while the Group of 5 went 11-80 against the same leagues.
On Saturday, he said he didn’t want to revisit his comments, but he did continue to make his case for his champion.
“I don’t want to get into too much about how we’re positioned versus other conferences,” Yormark said. “But I will say, where I sit, there should be no comparison between us and any G5 conference champion. I’ll double down on that for sure. Hopefully the selection committee will do what they need to do.”
For Dillingham, no matter where the seed is, he has been able to prove that he can win at his alma mater after claiming the Sun Devils’ first outright conference championship since 1996.
“I think you can achieve anything here,” Dillingham said. “I’ve always thought that people have always said this place is a sleeping giant. Well, you’re not a sleeping giant if you never wake up. You’re a dead giant. And it just hasn’t woken up for so long.”
