Are The Arizona State Sun Devils Overrated?
By Tony Fischer
In the weekly orgy of football tailgating that is College Gameday on ESPN a key cast member named the Arizona State Sun Devils as the most overvalued team in the College Football Playoff rankings.
Kirk Herbstreit called the Arizona State Sun Devils overvalued based on the schedule and their blow-out loss to UCLA.
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By extension Herstreit’s take also devalues the strength of the PAC 12 conference. ASU is 3-1 against the top 25 this season all of which were against conference opponents. Their only loss on the season was also their worst when UCLA ran up 62 points on the Sun Devils defense in week 4.
The win by the Bruins boosted their rankings early in th season, momentum that was sacked by back-back losses to Utah and Oregon.
If pundits are going to reward Oregon for playing touch conference competition, should ASU receive the same reward? If ASU receives a penalty for losing to UCLA (ranked 11 at the time), shouldn’t the Ducks Win over UCLA two-week later when they were ranked just 18 be valued differently?
When comparing the Ducks and Sun Devils, a knowledgeable college football fan could argue that ASU has a better playoff resume than Oregon. The Ducks play in the weaker of the two PAC-12 divisions and as a result has faced lesser opponents. The Ducks have had just two wins against top 25 teams, only one of which came against a conference opponent. The other came against Michigan State in Week 2.
Arizona State can silence the critics with a win over Notre Dame at home. A win against the Irish will give them 4 wins against the Top 25 and should push them into the top five or six in the CFP rankings. With that kind of resume it will be difficult to call them Arizona State Sun Devils over valued.