The new CFP Rankings were released Tuesday night and with it came the real possibility of a doomsday scenario for Arizona State. Could ASU actually win the Big 12 Championship, but not make the CFP Playoffs?
The big change in this weeks rankings was Boise State moving up to the No. 4 seed, passing BYU. This means that the committee now believes their resume coming out of the Mountain West is now stronger than anyone from the Big 12. According to the new rules, the top 5 highest ranked conference winners will earn automatic bids, followed by the 7 next highest ranked teams.
If the Sun Devils were to win out, they would presumably jump both Colorado and BYU as the highest rated team in the Big 12. The winners of the Big 10, SEC and ACC will all earn one of the five automatic bids. The CFP committee has now said Boise State is ranked the next highest so they would likely earn one as well. The problem becomes if the winner of the AAC is ranked higher than the winner of the Big 12. Currently, both Army and Tulane are ranked higher than ASU. If Army were to win out, there would be a real possibility that they would remain ranked higher than the Sun Devils, even if ASU were to win out as well.
In that scenario, ASU would have to be one of the next seven highest ranked teams. As of todays rankings, that group would include Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana, Notre Dame, Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia, Tennessee, SMU, Texas A&M, Clemson and South Carolina.
Because of this, there is a real chance that the Sun Devils could win the Big 12 Championship, and still be left out of the CFP Playoffs.
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Spenser Tilus is a sports reporter for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account @Spenser_Tilus
