One of the most improbable and thrilling stories of the chaotic 2024 college football season resides in Tempe, where Kenny Dillingham pulled Arizona State out of the depths in a breakthrough second campaign atop his alma mater’s program. The Sun Devils suddenly control their own destiny on the road to a Big 12 championship and a College Football Playoff berth.
Should Arizona State keep its momentum rolling and punch its ticket to the inaugural 12-team bracket, it could be one of three teams from out west to reach the playoff. Oregon remains in pole position for the No. 1 overall seed after it completed its bye week and Boise State fended off disaster in Week 13 to stay in the driver’s seat for the Group of Five’s automatic bid.
Dillingham’s magic headlined a week on the West Coast that carried significant postseason implications on both the playoff and bowl eligibility levels.
ARIZONA STATE JUMPS INTO BIG 12 CATBIRD SEAT
The Big 12 media picked Arizona State to finish its first year in the conference at dead-last in the standings. With one week until the league championship game, though, the Sun Devils are in a four-team tie for first place and hold the inside track to a shot at Big 12 supremacy and the playoff berth that almost certainly comes with it.
The conference announced after Arizona State’s win over BYU that if each of the four teams atop the ladder win next week, the Sun Devils and Cougars will meet again in the championship game. The only scenario in which Dillingham’s crew does not get to Arlington is with a loss in the Territorial Cup, which looks less and less likely with each passing week as Arizona continues to plummet.
Arizona State’s stunning turnaround has Dillingham in line for the conference’s Coach of the Year award, particularly given the difficult circumstances he inherited upon taking over the program at the end of the Herm Edwards debacle. A three-win season last fall and a number of transfer exits at the end of the campaign suggested that it could be a long climb out of the basement, but another year under the right leadership and a conference change positioned the Sun Devils for a historic campaign. In fact, if Arizona State wins its rivalry game next weekend, it will complete its first 10-win regular season since 2013 and set up a shot at its first 11-win campaign of this century.
BOISE STATE SHOWS VULNERABILITY BUT CLINCHES MWC TITLE GAME BERTH
Boise State squeaked past Wyoming in a spot that could have destroyed its playoff aspirations. The Broncos played with fire for the third game in a row when they trailed the Cowboys deep into the fourth quarter. The close call came one week after they faced 14-0 deficit against San José State and two weeks after they needed all four quarters to separate from Nevada. Ashton Jeanty is far from fully healthy and missed part of the game with an injury, and while he returned in the fourth quarter to put the game on ice and secure a Mountain West Championship Game berth, there could come a time in the not-so-distant future when even his heroics are not enough to save the Broncos.
USC SECURES BOWL ELIGIBILITY; UCLA TO MISS POSTSEASON
Bowl eligibility is a low bar for USC, but the Trojans secured win No. 6 in the Crosstown Showdown and prevented the bottom from entirely falling out from underneath Lincoln Riley. New starting quarterback Jayden Maiava threw a go-ahead touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter for the Trojans’ lone trip to the end zone, and a fourth Michael Lantz field goal and final stop from the defense closed out a 19-13 victory in the Rose Bowl.
Few expected UCLA to reach a bowl game in Year 1 under DeShaun Foster, so that the loss snapped any postseason hopes for the Bruins came as little surprise. But that USC was in a situation to require a Week 13 win (or a victory next week over Notre Dame) to secure a .500 regular season was a shock. Riley’s failures are well-documented, and he has big questions to answer this offseason and into next year.
OREGON STATE WINS DE FACTO PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Conference realignment castaways Oregon State and Washington State met in Corvallis for their only league game of the year, and in stunning fashion, the Beavers racked up 41 points on the heels of a shutout loss at Air Force to defeat the Cougars and clinch the de facto Pac-12 title. Oregon State looked like a dead team walking throughout its five-game losing streak but flipped a switch with the return of quarterback Ben Gulbranson, who passed for 294 yards and two touchdowns to lead his team to a season-high in scoring. Everett Hayes booted a 55-yard field goal through the uprights in the final minute to put the final touches on a win Oregon State needed desperately for program morale.
FINAL NOTES
Boise State’s challenger in the Mountain West Championship Game will not emerge until next weekend’s action is complete, but UNLV is a near lock to reach the title bout after Colorado State suffered its first conference loss. The Rebels hold key advantages in the tiebreaker scenarios, which come into play if both teams win in Week 14.
Fernando Mendoza led a 98-yard scoring drive to finish the Big Game and push California over the top of Stanford. From down 21-7 in the third quarter to up 24-21 at the end of the contest, the Golden Bears reversed their close-game fortunes and clinched bowl eligibility, sparking an all-timer of a postgame interview from their quarterback.
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A pair of preseason Big 12 championship hopefuls saw their nightmare seasons continue as Utah fell agonizingly short of an upset win over Iowa State and Arizona dropped a blowout loss to TCU. Neither team can reach a bowl game after they suffered their seventh defeats.
