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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-08-10 19:11:14+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
Arizona State (high = 8, low = 24) comes in at lucky #13, the preseason pick to be the best team in the Big XII and their defending champions. What a turnaround from a year ago when they were famously picked to finish last in the conference. They even overcame the relatively slow start of holding off SEC cellar dweller Mississippi State (who scored the last 20 points to make it a one possession game) at home, coming back to beat Texas State and opening up conference play 0-1 to become the 1 seed in the Big XII, host the championship game where they spanked Iowa State, then scaring the living shit out of Texas in the Fiesta Bowl/CFP to finish 11-3. Dilly Dilly!. What exactly does phenom Kenny Dillingham do for an encore in year 3?
Roster outlook
Well, for starters, he just keeps doing what he’s done! The Sun Devils rank 2nd overall in returning production, with the 2nd most production returning on defense and “only” the 4th most production on offense. That said, they do face one of the single biggest losses in all of FBS by having to replace the best single season RB in the team’s history, Cam Skattebo, who scampered for 1,700 yards and 21 TDs, both school records and good enough to warrant a 5th place Heisman finish, will now be running the ball for the New York Giants. It’s worth noting that Skattebo was also the team’s 2nd leading receiver, so those are giant shoes to fill. Still, Arizona State returns QB Sam Leavitt, 1,100 yard receiver Jordyn Tyson and TE Chamon Metayer. And that’s on the worst of the two sides of the ball. On defense, the team’s top 2 leading tacklers, 3 leading sackers and top 2 interception leaders all return. Needless to say, Dillingham didn’t have to go out and do too much, but he did manage to bring in the 7th best recruiting class in the Big XII and paired it with the 13th best portal class. The biggest names projected to step in are Army RB Kanye Udoh (imagine going from the discipline of West Point to seeing the talent walking around Arizona State every day?) and Fresno State WR Jalen Moss.
Schedule and outlook
The Sun Devils start off their OOC as almost a mirror image of last season, with Northern Arizona as their tune up before going to Stark Vegas and then hosting Texas State. If you look at these rankings, they should open 3-0, but Vegas has Mississippi State as only 5.5 point (bull)dogs, so Arizona State better be prepared. Much like last year, they open Big XII play on the road in Texas, this time at Baylor. Given that the Sun Devils are ranked ahead of every other team in the conference, these rankings would suggest they’d be favored to win all of those games. But it’s also worth pointing out that Arizona State only went 3-2 on the road in conference last season (and struggled at Texas State), so every one of those other road conference games (at Utah, at Iowa State, at Colorado) are not gimmes. For that matter, their first two home conference games (TCU and Texas Tech) don’t look like automatic wins, either, so before they get to the rest of their home slate (Houston, West Virginia, Arizona) they could face some gut checks.