Arizona State Delivers

I honestly think it’s impossible to fully digest everything that happened in the Peach Bowl between Arizona State and Texas as I write this less than 24 hours later. 

The Sun Devils seemed destined for an SMU or Tennessee fate after falling behind 14-3 before you could say “hook ‘em” in the first quarter, but head coach Kenny Dillingham kept his team fighting. 

After stemming the tide and putting up a fight, the game again felt well out of reach at 24-8 in the fourth quarter. Then, running back Cam Skattebo put on his cape and turned into Superman. 

Skattebo put together a legendary performance: 143 yards rushing, 99 yards receiving, 42 yards passing, and three touchdowns. Most of his damage was done after puking on the sideline to start the fourth quarter. 

It was such an impressive effort that even the most overzealous SEC henchman had to bow at the altar of Skattebo. 

Many will point to his 42-yard touchdown pass as the most impressive play of the day, but I don’t know that I’ve seen a more jaw-dropping play all season than his 62-yard catch and run down the sideline. 

Arizona State should have had a chance to kill the clock and line up a game-winning field goal in regulation, but officials brazenly blew an obvious 3rd-and-long targeting call on the Longhorns. 

Texas kicker Bert Auburn missed not one but two potential game-winning field goals in the final minutes. Guess this pep talk from Sark didn’t work. 

In overtime, ASU was a 4th-and-13 stop away from winning the game, but defensive coordinator Brian Ward brought the house, and Texas QB Quinn Ewers made him pay. It’s a call that will haunt Sun Devils fans forever. 

After all of that, I haven’t even begun discussing the big-picture implications of the game. More on that below. 

The bottom line is this: the team picked last in the Big 12 preseason poll just went to double overtime with SEC runner-up Texas in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal. 

Yeah, take your hypotheticals and shove ‘em, SEC mafia.

What You Need to Know

• Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark released a statement saying he’s had multiple conversations with College Football Playoff Executive Director Rich Clark to seek clarification on the missed targeting call in the fourth quarter of the Peach Bowl. This is yet another example of Yormark fighting for the league. 

• ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt and former NFL referees Gene Steratore and Terry McAulay were among many who thought Texas should have been called for targeting in the fourth quarter. 

• BYU-Colorado was the Alamo Bowl’s most-viewed game in bowl history. Eight million people watched the Cougars beat the Buffaloes 36-14 last Saturday. 

• ESPN’s Paul Finebaum admitted he was wrong to suggest that Alabama should have made the College Football Playoff. I can’t believe I just typed those words. 

• West Virginia quarterback Nicco Marchiol announced he is returning to WVU for the 2025 season. He’ll have a chance to win the starting job under new head coach Rich Rodriguez.

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SEC Hypotheticals Go Up in Smoke

That effort from Arizona State should do a world of good for the perception of the Big 12. 

The SEC-centric crowd that spent the last month whining incessantly about three-loss SEC teams being left out of the playoff and a lack of competitive playoff games was rendered speechless by the Sun Devils’ performance against a team that was an overtime away from winning the SEC. 

In a year when the other six playoff games were duds, delivering one of the best College Football Playoff games of all time stands out even more. 

The game proves exactly why the tidal wave of hypothetical beatdowns SEC fans projected onto Big 12, ACC, and Big Ten teams means absolutely nothing. 

So far, the most competitive games of the playoff featured Arizona State, Clemson, and Boise State. 

Only two teams all season long racked up more than 350 total yards on the vaunted Texas defense: Clemson (ACC) and Arizona State (Big 12). Hell, ASU had 510 yards of offense. Georgia got two bites at the apple and couldn’t muster more than 283 yards against the Longhorns. 

Arizona State isn’t even one of the more trusted programs in the Big 12. It would be one thing if Utah or Oklahoma State did this to an SEC power. The Utes have played in two post-pandemic Rose Bowls, and OSU beat Notre Dame in a recent Fiesta Bowl. 

Instead, it was a team a year removed from 3-9 that had Texas on life support. For all the crap the Big 12 gets about being considerably less talented than the SEC, the team deemed most lacking in talent by the Big 12 media this year was one play away from slaying Texas. 

Maybe, just maybe, the gap isn’t really that wide anymore. 

NIL and the transfer portal have leveled the playing field. Georgia and Alabama can’t hoard a three-deep chock full of Power Four starters anymore. Those players can freely leave to grab playing time and cash elsewhere. 

It’s a move that seems to be having a similar impact as the scholarship limits that were put in place in the late 70s when the Oklahomas and Nebraskas of the world could stockpile as much talent as they wanted to keep it away from regional rivals. 

Plus, Nick Saban isn’t walking through that door to save his beloved league anymore. The greatest to ever do it helped tilt the scales in favor of the SEC in an almost irreversible way. With him out of the picture, things open up for everyone else. 

It’s criminal that BYU wasn’t more widely considered for a playoff spot. 

The ACC, which finished 2-9 in bowl games and 0-2 in the playoff without a genuinely competitive game, somehow had three teams in consideration to the Big 12’s one. 

Alabama and South Carolina fell flat on their faces in bowl games against Michigan and Illinois, yet they were considered legitimate snubs. 

Arizona State’s effort should help the next potential at-large Big 12 team get a better shake. Emphasis on should. 

I know one thing for sure: I’ll keep beating that drum until my arms fall off–especially now that I’m armed with this non-hypothetical, on-field evidence from the Peach Bowl. 

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