With the US LBM Coaches Poll coming out on Monday, there are so many discussions to be had about the great sport of college football before the season even starts. While it is not about where you start, but where you finish, sometimes where you start can dictate how the media, the AP voters and the College Football Playoff selection committee may feel about you. Just look at Arizona State.
This was a team a year ago that broke the mold in the new Big 12. Picked to finish dead last, Kenny Dillingham's Sun Devils went 10-2 during the regular season and blew out Iowa State in Arlington to win the conference (and its automatic CFP bid) outright. While they did not get past the Texas Longhorns in the Peach Bowl, Arizona State proved it more than belonged in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. So why doubt them?
Clearly, the coaching collective does not want to give the Sun Devils their due and a top-10 ranking.
Preseason Coaches Poll for 2025 college football season
- Texas Longhorns: 1,606 points (28 first-place votes)
- Ohio State Buckeyes: 1,565 points (20 first-place votes)
- Penn State Nittany Lions: 1,525 points (14 first-place votes)
- Georgia Bulldogs: 1,466 points (3 first-place votes)
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish: 1,360 points
- Clemson Tigers: 1,324 points (2 first-place votes)
- Oregon Ducks: 1,307 points
- Alabama Crimson Tide: 1,210 points
- LSU Tigers: 1,056 points
- Miami Hurricanes; 823 points
- Arizona State Sun Devils: 806 points
- Illinois Fighting Illini: 734 points
- South Carolina Gamecocks: 665 points
- Michigan Wolverines: 580 points
- Ole Miss Rebels: 573 points
- SMU Mustangs: 555 points
- Florida Gators: 498 points
- Tennessee Volunteers: 492 points
- Indiana Hoosiers: 460 points
- Kansas State Wildcats: 438 points
- Texas A&M Aggies: 392 points
- Iowa Sate Cyclones: 392 points
- BYU Cougars: 287 points
- Texas Tech Red Raiders: 261 points
- Boise State Broncos: 246 points
They may only be a spot off that mark coming in at No. 11, but there are three teams ranked directly ahead of them that do not need to be ranked inside the top 10 as much as they do. That would be the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes, the No. 9 LSU Tigers and the No. 8 Alabama Crimson Tide. The top seven teams in the country feel like a consensus across the board, but Arizona State deserves to be in that next group.
Outside of the top seven, are there more likely playoff locks than Arizona State or No. 25 Boise State?
Arizona State Sun Devils should easily be a top-10 team in the country
With my FanSided.com colleague and False Start co-host Cody Williams, we are in the midst of our conference preview episodes. While we will not get to the Big 12 preview until next week, let's just say that I am very high on Arizona State this fall. It is the combination of their great skill-position players, coaching prowess and having the necessary even-keeled nature to navigate such a fickle league.
When I look at the teams ahead of them, the top seven teams in the Coaches Poll are all playoff locks. Teams like Clemson and Penn State have loaded rosters ready to win a national championship. While that could prove to be the case in time for teams like Georgia, Ohio State and Texas, their floors are all insanely high. Even though Notre Dame and Oregon are not winning it all, they are both getting in, too.
But once we get down to No. 8, No. 9, No. 10 and No. 11, where Arizona State is slotted, what have the Crimson Tide, Tigers and Hurricanes done over the last year to lead you to believe they will be better than the Sun Devils in the end? Let the record show I do not have Alabama, LSU or Miami making the playoff. They all feel like 9-3 teams to me. Arizona State might go something like 11-2 this season.
Whether it be Dillingham and Marcus Arroyo on the sidelines, or the lethal combination of quarterback Sam Leavitt, wide receiver Jordyn Tyson and transfer running back Kanye Udoh from Army, I do not see a three-headed beast anywhere in the Big 12 as menacing as what Arizona State has to offer offensively. And whoever ends up winning the Big 12 is going to be a top-10 team come playoff time.
In the end, I feel like the coaches are still dubious of Dillingham being able to replicate what the Sun Devils did a year ago. I would like to point out that I thought the job was going to consume him alive upon him leaving Oregon to take over at his alma mater. It looked to be the case in year one at ASU in 2023. But last year showed me that Arizona State is no longer a sleeping giant. This giant is wide awake!
I have Arizona State winning the Big 12 at 12-1 and earning a top-eight seed in the expanded playoff.