Dark horse rising: Winner of Arizona State-Cincinnati could crash Big 12 championship

The Big 12 conference had to have known what it was signing up for when it acquired the "four corner" schools from the Pac-12 this season. Adding them to the mix with former Group of Five participants BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston was bound to brew chaos.

Now, that chaos comes to a simmer when Arizona State and Cincinnati meet in what is likely an elimination game for a berth to the Big 12 Championship game.

Prior to the season, nobody would've predicted it to have as high stakes as it carries now. Arizona State (5-1) and Cincinnati (4-2) were both picked to finish near the bottom of the conference in the preseason media poll.

Now sitting in the top half of the standings after the halfway point in the season, a loss for either squad will likely relegate it to minor bowl status at best.

What needs to happen for ASU or Cincinnati to reach the Big 12 title game?

A win, for starters, would help. Arizona State's only loss this year was to new conference foe Texas Tech, so it cannot afford a second with bouts against heavyweights like Kansas State (Nov. 16) and BYU (Nov. 23) still remaining.

After upsetting No. 16 Utah in Week 7 on the backs of star players like running back Cam Skattebo, ASU has a decent shot at the win in Cincinnati but would need to run the table to find itself in Dallas at the end of the road. An unlikely scenario but not impossible.

Cincinnati also lost to Texas Tech but suffered an additional stumble against Pittsburgh earlier in the year. The single conference loss is the only limited damage to the Bearcats Big 12 resume which is fragile to say the least.

While favored at home on Saturday, per ESPN's FPI, it would still feel like an upset for the Bearcats to take down a such a hot opponent. But it would be a win that could catapult them to greater, unexpected heights the remainder of the year.