Mission accomplished for Kenny Dillingham and Arizona State.
Behind a big day from star running back Cam Skattebo, the Sun Devils capped off their impressive season by going from picked dead last in the Big 12 preseason poll to winning their first conference championship title as a member of the Big 12.
With their 45-19 rout of Iowa State on Saturday in AT&T Stadium, the Sun Devils also punched their ticket to the College Football Playoff. The only question that now remains around Arizona State is its seeding: a top-four seed with a first-round bye, or an automatic qualifier further down the 12-team bracket.
Dillingham spoke adamantly to ABC’s Katie George about where he thinks his team deserves to be seeded in the CFP bracket shortly after being showered in Gatorade. The Sun Devils are fighting for the final first-round bye with Boise State.
‘Last year, they (CFP selection committee) kept Florida State out because their quarterback didn’t play, we’re 11-1 with our quarterback and we’re Big 12 champs. I think we should be treated like an 11-1 team,’ Dillingham told George after Saturday’s Big 12 championship game.
The Seminoles, of course, were infamously left out of the final four-team playoff for one-loss Alabama, despite going undefeated and winning the ACC championship. The committee reasoned that FSU was not the same without quarterback Jordan Travis, creating yet more controversy more in the final year of the four-team era.
In just two seasons at Arizona State, Dillingham has turned around the Sun Devils program a full 180 degrees from the final years of the Herb Edwards era. At 11-2 on the season, the Sun Devils have improved their win total from last season by eight games — just one of three Power Four teams to improve their win total year-by-year to eight games since 2012.
Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt finished 12 of 17 passing for 219 yards and three touchdowns against Iowa State on Saturday. The Michigan State transfer only missed one game this season back on Oct. 19 at Cincinnati due to a rib injury, just one of two Big 12 losses this season for Arizona State.
Entering Saturday’s Big 12 championship game, Arizona State was ranked No. 15 in the penultimate CFP top 25 rankings. The Sun Devils, as the highest-ranked Big 12 team, were projected as the No. 12 seed in the final bracket under the current template of the bracket. Current rules state that if the fifth-highest-ranked conference champion is ranked outside of the top 12 in the final CFP top 25, they are slotted in at No. 12.
Arizona State did not receive any outside help to improve its CFP projected seeding, as Boise State and Ashton Jeanty, ranked No. 10 in the latest playoff top 25, defeated UNLV 21-7 in the Mountain West championship Friday, advancing to 12-1 on the season and likely clinching a top-four seed.
The Sun Devils (11-1 overall, 7-2 in Big 12) will find out their final ranking and seeding on Sunday at noon ET in the final CFP rankings show.