In 1970, an undefeated 10-0 ASU team under legendary head coach Frank Kush was challenged by not being invited to any bowl games. Atlanta's Peach Bowl was the only postseason contest to extend an invite, and that December 30, 1970 contest became one of the most memorable games in Sun Devil history. In a game that was played through a snow and ice storm, Arizona State beat North Carolina 48-26. More importantly, the inclement weather that day led individuals from the Phoenix Metropolitan and Atlanta to establish a more weather-friendly bowl game, which led to the Fiesta Bowl creation in the Valley of the Sun.
In a full circle moment today, ASU's No. 4 playoff seed, a ranking and first-round bye awarded by virtue of them being the Big 12 champions, will now have them play in the Peach Bowl once again on January 1, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, facing the winner of Clemson and Texas who will meet in the first round of the playoffs. And ironically, the Sun Devils were so close to staying home and playing in the Fiesta Bowl, but a controversial decision by the playoff committee to award Boise State the No. 3 seed will now have the Broncos playing in Glendale.
ASU, with its No. 12 playoff seed, was, in essence, the last team in the field of 12. It only earned a spot, let alone a first-round bye, due to capturing the Big 12 championship.
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark naturally defended his conference, emphasizing the importance of the disparity in schedule strength between the Big 12 and the Mountain West. “Don’t look at logos; look at resumes,” Yormark said. “No Group of Five champion should be placed ahead of a Big 12 champion.” Alas, his words did not move the decision-makers.
Clemson advanced to the playoffs by defeating SMU with a game-winning field goal in the ACC Championship, while Texas fell narrowly in overtime against No. 2 Georgia in the SEC Championship.
This season was an ongoing redemption for Arizona State, who, after being picked to finish in 16th and last place in the Big 12 Preseason Media Poll, has proven skeptics wrong by not only winning the conference crown but also clinching its first College Football Playoff appearance in its first season as a member of the Big 12. This impressive turnaround reflects the leadership of head coach Kenny Dillingham and the dedication of his players and coaching staff.
“This is a great opportunity for our guys,” Dillingham said Sunday afternoon. “They've worked really hard to get to this moment and be able to compete at this level. Some of our guys get to come home to compete in this game, which makes it even more special for those guys. At the end of the day, the Peach Bowl is going to get a group of guys who are going to play as hard as they can for 60 minutes, and even a little bit longer if necessary, and I think that's why these guys have gone from worst to first in the conference, is because how hard we play, how passionate we are, and I'm excited to get down there.”
The Sun Devils’ success this season has stemmed largely from their underdog mentality, with ASU playing with a chip on its shoulder throughout the season. Now, that hard work and determination have brought the program national recognition and its first-ever playoff berth.
“It just shows what we can be,” Dillingham said. “With the right direction, with the right players who are committed to the program and committed to work, I think you can achieve anything here.”
Due to their Sunday night banquet, the ASU team will have the entire week off starting tomorrow and will return to practice early next week, preparing for their postseason contest. Now that the stakes are higher than ever, the format of practices later in the month will be different from a typical bowl game practice.
“We'll have a few weeks of practice where we'll be young guy driven,” Dillingham described, “trying to get the vets some rest, and then we'll transition with 17 days out into more veteran-led practices to get back into shape, hit a little bit. So, the beginning will be definitely more of that traditional bowl prep, let's develop the young guys, taking that bye week approach.”
You can call them the proverbial champagne problems, but Arizona State faces a unique challenge over the next few weeks. While preparing for the playoff quarterfinal, the staff will be busy balancing the evaluation transfer portal additions, hosting them on visits, and continually assessing personnel needs. Meanwhile, the team will spend the first half of its postseason practices not knowing who its next opponent will be, as Clemson and Texas will only face each other on the 21st of this month.
“This week, we'll be mainly focused on self-scout before we really know our actual opponent,” Dillingham remarked. “We're still part of the worst team in these playoffs, according to what everybody believes, so we still have a chip on our shoulder, and we've got to find the balance in practice of getting the guys fresh/working difficult at a high level.
“Our plan was to sign younger transfers that we could build around for years three, and hopefully then turn a corner with enough youth on our team that we've recruited. So, because of that, 35 of the 44 guys in our two-team have the ability to return. So, hopefully, we can get back 35 of the 44 guys that have got us here. Nowadays, with the portal and NIL and us not being one of the top NIL programs in the country, there is a chance that other teams will try to come in and poach some of our guys, which is unfortunate. But I think the majority of our team wants to be here.
“We're going to lose a lot of wideouts, so we're going to take a wideout (from the portal). Offensive line, we're going to take a couple, one if not two offensive linemen. At running back, Skat (Cameron Skattebo) is leaving, and we need to find somebody to take out some of his carries. We feel good about the guys behind Skat, but he’s a bigger back, so we got to get another bigger back in here to replace him. On the defense, we're losing a defensive end and a defensive tackle, and then probably one safety depending on what happens here in the next week or so. So, if anybody good like that goes in the portal, just hit us up.”
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