Arizona State 45, Iowa State 19, and that was after taking the foot off the gas – it was 45-10 with 13 minutes to play.
And now this is where the College Football Playoff and chairman Warde Manuel screwed this up.
The idea from the start with the CFP was that every week the rankings start from scratch. All preconceived notions are gone, they reassemble all the data points and argue as if it’s all fresh.
Instead, Manuel mentioned that things wouldn’t change in a big way with the conference championships. A team that lost wouldn’t be punished for playing the extra game, and it has yet to be seen if, say, a Penn State at 3 would drop below Notre Dame at the 4 if Oregon wins the Big Ten championship in a blowout.
And here’s where the committee has to do its work.
First, theoretically, I’m sorry, but I’m now in Year 27 of making this same argument.
Winning a Power Four conference is different than winning a Group of Five conference. It just is.
There’s a shot 50% of the NFL Draft will be made up of SEC and Big Ten players, and most of the rest will come from the ACC and Big 12. The overall talent level is so much better, and it’s so relentless.
Could a Boise State beat an Oregon? It almost did. Could it be competitive in Power Four leagues. Absolutely. But it’s not about that one game, it’s about the constant bip-bip-bip grind of body blows that add up playing better athletes and teams with resources.
That why Arizona State must be a top four seed in the College Football Playoff.
That doesn’t mean it’s better than Ohio State, or Notre Dame, or Tennessee, but under the new CFP parameters, the top four ranked conference champions get into the top four and receive a bye.
For Arizona State, it might mean the difference between going to South Bend or College Station or Columbus in December, and playing in the Fiesta Bowl after getting an extra week off.
Now, as of writing this, it could all be easy. If Clemson beats SMU for the ACC title, then the Big Ten Champion, SEC Champion, SMU, and Arizona State will be top four seeds. But if SMU wins, at the moment, the belief is that Boise State and SMU will join the Big Ten and SEC champs.
Here’s the problem with that …
Arizona State has won nine games against Power Four teams. It beat Wyoming 48-7 – granted, first game of the year – and blew out Iowa State in a Power Four, Big 12 Championship on a neutral field. That, and one loss to Cincinnati was without QB Sam Leavitt, and the other was at Texas Tech.
Boise State has no Power Four wins, beat Wyoming 17-13, and won its championship over UNLV in a fight – it got interesting late – at home. It has a close loss at Oregon – this really isn’t about dogging Boise State as much as it is praising ASU – a fantastic running back who might win the Heisman, and it absolutely deserves all the praise.
And, again, if Clemson takes care of business, put Boise State in the top four.
But Arizona State should get the 3 or 4.
