TEMPE, AZ — With more than half of the 16 teams still mathematically alive to make the conference championship game, the Big 12 will command a lot of attention in the final week of the regular season.
No. 14 Arizona State and No. 17 Iowa State would play for the Big 12 title and College Football Playoff spot on Dec. 7 if they both win Saturday. If either loses, there are seven other teams that begin this week with hopes, slim in most cases, of getting into the game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Last week it was No. 19 BYU and No. 23 Colorado that had the inside track to the championship game. Arizona State beat the Cougars and Kansas knocked off the Buffaloes, and here we are.
“Everybody counted us out, I think, two weeks ago,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said after his team beat Utah 31-28. “We didn't flinch. We didn't waver. And we just keep fighting.”
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The Cyclones were national darlings the first half of the season as they won seven straight games to match the best start in program history. Back-to-back losses to Texas Tech and Kansas followed. Now they've won two straight heading into “Farmageddon,” their rivalry game against Kansas State at home.
“Right now they've got the pen and they continue to write the story,” Campbell said of his players, “and I hope they will continue to write it the way they've got the ability to write it. Unwavering. Tough, mentally tough, physically tough. This group has stood for it every step of the way.”
Arizona State has been an even better story than the Cyclones. The Sun Devils have six more wins than they did last season, when they went 3-9. They were picked to finish last in their first year in the Big 12. They'll go for their fifth straight victory when they play at Arizona on Saturday.
“These guys came off no momentum and everybody doubting them, and everybody is still doubting them. That's what makes this special,” second-year coach Kenny Dillingham said. “Hopefully the expectations become higher. I don't know if there's a way we can exceed expectations more than we're exceeding them right now.”
