Deion’s Colorado Buffaloes, not the Arizona State Sun Devils, need to be Big 12 champs
Two Starbucks drinks would have gained you admission into the Big 12 title game between Iowa State and Arizona State, which feels about one grande mocha frapawhateverthehell too rich.
At kickoff, a single ticket into AT&T Stadium to watch these two “blueboods” of the expanded Big 12 was down to $8.
Amid the many challenges that exist for Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, convincing the rest of college football that his league is more than the Mountain West 2.0 is atop the list. In the world of the 12-team college football playoff invitational, he presides over 16 schools that fight for one precious spot.
On Saturday morning, ASU defeated ISU 45-19 in front of 736 people to win the Big 12 title, and the right to go to the playoff invitational. For laughs, the Big 12 announced that the attendance for Saturday’s game was 55,889, which looked to be generous by 25,889.
No matter how much lobbying, whining and campaigning anyone in this league does, only the Sun Devils are in, while the second-place Cyclones will head to play in the XXX Adult Entertainment Complex Bowl.
As long as there is an 8-loss team in the SEC, or an 11-loss team from the Big 10 is available, there are only jagged paths for the Big 12 to land more than one spot in the playoffs. Iowa State’s chances of earning an invite, if it lost on Saturday, were about 0.02%.
“Parity and depth, right now, is what I am selling,” Yormark said before the game. “But moving forward I think it might be a little different.”
Replace “might be” with “must be.” The only league where “parity and depth” has any credibility is the SEC, because “It just means more” is the campaign promise people not only believe but will pay a premium to support.
The only guy who has a prayer of changing this Big 12 narrative isn’t Yormark.
The guy in question wasn’t even at AT&T Stadium. He may make you be sick to your stomach, but Deion Sanders is the only guy, short of a United States Senator, who could force both ESPN, and the professional freeloaders who comprise the college football playoff selection committee, to deviate from their bias.
The mouth that is never wrong and has no off switch didn’t make it to the Big 12 title game, because his Buffaloes were toyed with by mighty Kansas in the second-to-last regular season game. Until the day Deion goes to a different job because God told him to make more money, the Buffaloes are the best chance to ensure that the Big 12 is something more than a one-bid league.
“Resumes over logos,” Yormark said of what he hopes the committee will lean on when it releases the bracket on Sunday morning.
The guys who lead the ACC, AAC, Big West, Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt, Patriot League, Ivy League and NAIA have all preached this sentiment for years with the hope that somebody might actually listen, and believe, them.
Yormark’s problem is this: “Brands matter more than ever before,” he said.
Logos matter. Brands run the sport.
Deion’s Buffaloes are a Big 12 brand that matters.
The only reason a 3-loss Alabama team may just wind up in this playoff is because of its legacy, and history of winning. Alabama’s losses at Vanderbilt and at Oklahoma should have ensured that first-year coach Kalen DeBoer had no chance of making this playoff.
And yet here we are because the power of “Roll Tide” is deeply embedded into the psyche of college football. It’s Alabama, so it must be better than SMU, Clemson, Florida State, or anything the Big 12 can offer.
As Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire recently said at a press conference in Lubbock, “We just need to re-look at this and what patch and what logo it says on your jersey, what conference you’re from, and look at the tape.”
If you look the logo, few major college programs have underperformed like the Sun Devils. It’s the state school in Tempe, Az. known for parties, pretty girls, meh football, bad basketball, and leisurely attitude towards education. (Do yourself a favor and watch Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” visit in 2009 to the ASU campus).
If you look at the tape from this season, Arizona State football is now a problem under kid coach Kenny Dillingham. The team is physical, and running back Cam Skattebo should be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. ASU is the best team in the league by a comfortable margin.
A margin that should have been a bit tighter had Colorado been just a bit better. The Buffaloes have a few top tier players in quarterback Shedeur Sanders and likely Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, but nothing special on its defensive front seven.
Had that margin been a bit tighter, and Arizona State played Colorado rather than Iowa State for the conference title, maybe people listen to McGuire and Yormark and consider the Big 12 as a two-bid league.
Instead, in its first season in the Big 12 the Sun Devils will be its lone representative in the college football playoff invitational. Because, “Brands matter than ever before.”
And the Big 12 doesn’t have the right ones.
This story was originally published December 7, 2024 at 2:29 PM.
