ASU, Big 12 football disrespected in preseason coaches poll | Opinion

Looks like Arizona State football is being overlooked again.

Maybe US LBM Coaches Poll voters just like chaos?

ASU came in at No. 11 in the preseason rankings. Herm Edwards and Ray Anderson would have led a parade down University Boulevard with such a ranking. (So would any other coach and athletic director who’ve been through Tempe in the nearly 50 years since Frank Kush.) But for Kenny Dillingham and Graham Rossini, it should feel like disrespect.

ASU ought to be in the top 10, at the least.

There were eight teams in the College Football Playoff last season.

I’d assume those eight teams would be the starting point for this year’s rankings, but ASU, SMU (No. 16), Tennessee (18), Indiana (19) and Boise State (25) all took tumbles.

ASU should be the angriest of this Forgotten Five. The Sun Devils have a Heisman contender at quarterback, Sam Leavitt, and a Biletnikoff contender at receiver, Jordyn Tyson. They’ve also got continuity across both starting units and within the coaching staff.

Aside from that, ASU gave the No. 1 team in this year’s ranking, Texas, all it could handle in a double-overtime Peach Bowl loss. (And ASU fans will go to their graves with "it was targeting" on their tombstones.)

ASU will also have to deal with the perceived mediocrity of teams across the conference. Four Big 12 schools are crowded into the bottom of the rankings. (Kansas State, 20; Iowa State, 21; BYU, 23; and Texas Tech, 24.)

Wins over those lowly ranked programs aren’t likely to push the Sun Devils ahead much throughout the season. Losses will cause ASU to slip badly.

Dilly’s Devils can still reach the playoffs, but they will probably have a lower seed and a harder path to the championship if they win the Big 12 again. Don’t expect an at-large team from this conference. Not with these preseason rankings.

That is, if the coaches are wrong. (And that’s a big “IF,” for me.)

The Sun Devils were famously picked to finish last in the Big 12 in the 2024 preseason conference media poll. Dillingham promptly tacked that headline to his team’s bulletin board and rode the motivation into a league championship, a spot in the College Football Playoff and a No. 7 ranking in the final poll.

But does anyone realistically think this program can sustain that kind of success in back-to-back years?

Look back over the program’s history and see how often that’s happened. I’ll save you a few clicks, ASU hasn’t had consecutive top 10 finishes since Frank Kush.

Are the coaches disrespecting ASU and the Big 12? Yes. Absolutely.

But that doesn’t mean the coaches are wrong. (And I don’t think they are. They’re simply going to have to prove it to me before I believe it.)

Let’s see if the Sun Devils have it in them to cause some chaos again.

Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.