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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.
Celebrate the Sun Devils’ season with out collector’s edition book, “Forks Up! How Arizona State Captured the Big 12 Title in Year One”
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…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/arizona-state-football-made-statement-120319896.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2025-01-04 12:03:00
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