BYU’s shocking loss puts Arizona State in position to win the Big 12

On By Littum

A pretty good Saturday just got a whole lot better for the Arizona State football team.

A little over three hours after finishing no. 16 Kansas State 24-14, then Sun Devils no. 6 BYU fall to Kansas 17-13.

The loss dropped BYU to 6-1 in the Big 12, just one game ahead of Arizona State (5-2) with two games to play.

And the Cougars travel to Tempe, Ariz., next Saturday to play the Sun Devils.

Updated Big 12 standings

It’s basically a four-team race between BYU, Colorado, Arizona State and Iowa State for the two berths in the Big 12 football championship game. After another Saturday of wild upsets, here’s a look at the top of the standings:

Every game is an elimination game for Arizona State, and that’s how they’ve operated for weeks. But now the Sun Devils don’t need help. If they win their last two games, at worst they’ll finish in a tie for second in the Big 12. Then the crazy tiebreaker scenarios begin.

Big 12 Tiebreaker Scenarios

Travis Hunter and the Colorado Buffaloes will travel to suddenly red-hot Kansas next week.

Travis Hunter and the Colorado Buffaloes will travel to suddenly red-hot Kansas next week. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Photos

If the Sun Devils can beat BYU next week — and Colorado and Iowa State win — it would create a three-way tie for second place behind Colorado. And if all four teams win their finals and the season ends in a three-way tie for second place … well, good luck with the tiebreaker rules:

In the event of a tie between more than two teams, the following procedures will be used. After a team has an advantage and is “seeded”, all remaining teams in the multi-team tiebreaker will repeat the tie-breaking procedure. If at any time the multi-team tie is reduced to two teams, the two-team tie procedure will be used.

one. The records of the three (or more) tied teams will be compared based on the winning percentage in games among the tied teams:

Arizona State, Iowa State and BYU won’t all be playing each other this season, so we’ll move on to the next step in the tiebreaker:

In this scenario, Arizona State would win the tiebreaker. The Sun Devils would finish 4-0 against regular Big 12 opponents, while both BYU and Iowa State would finish 3-1. That would land the Sun Devils in the Big 12 championship game against Colorado — with the winner claiming the Big 12 title and an automatic berth in the College Football Playoff.

With two weeks to go, Arizona State suddenly controls its own destiny.

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