Arizona State stakes CFP claim with dominant win vs. Iowa State

ARLINGTON, Texas — No. 15 Arizona State made its case for a top-four seed in the College Football Playoff after a 45-19 domination of No. 16 Iowa State to claim its first Big 12 championship.

The 11-2 Sun Devils were projected as a No. 12 seed after last week’s rankings with Boise State, which won the Mountain West on Friday night, projected at No. 4. The top four seeds are required to be conference champions. As the top Group of 5 qualifier, the Broncos would keep that No. 4 seeding if they ranked higher than the Big 12’s champion in the final CFP rankings.

The Sun Devils, picked to finish 16th in the 16-team Big 12 in the preseason media poll after a 3-9 finish in coach Kenny Dillingham’s first season last year, instead won the league, the first power conference team to do it in its first season since Virginia Tech won the ACC in its inaugural season in 2004.

Iowa State, seeking its first conference title since 1912, was overpowered by the Sun Devils — and running back Cam Skattebo in particular. The Sun Devils led 24-10 at the half. then forced three turnovers — two fumbles and an interception — in the third quarter to finish off the Cyclones.

Skattebo had a 28-yard run on the first play of the game, then added 47- and 53-yard runs in the second quarter to finish the first half with 10 carries for 140 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with nine forced broken tackles, punctuating his scoring runs with the Heisman Trophy pose. He also caught a 33-yard touchdown from Sam Leavitt in the third quarter.

Skattebo finished with 170 yards on 16 carries and Leavitt went 12-of-17 for 219 yards and three touchdowns, the other two to Xavier Guillory.

An hour before the game kicked off, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark met with reporters days after complaining that the “[CFP selection] committee continues to show time and time again that they are paying attention to logos versus résumés.” He said 74% of the Big 12’s wins were against other power conferences this year, while the Group of 5 went 11-80 against the same leagues.

On Saturday, he said he didn’t want to revisit his comments, but he did continue to make his case for his champion.

“I don’t want to get into too much about how we’re positioned versus other conferences,” Yormark said. “But I will say, where I sit, there should be no comparison between us and any G5 conference champion. I’ll double down on that for sure. Hopefully the selection committee will do what they need to do.”