3 ASU football games make ESPN's Top 100 list for the 2024-25 season

It's safe to say Arizona State fans will not forget the 2024-25 football season for quite some time. The team went 11-3, won a conference title and played in a New Year's Six bowl game for the first time since 1996-97.

But it seems the national media was paying attention to ASU's miracle-like season too because ESPN released it's Top 100 best games from the 2024-25 college football season on Tuesday and three Sun Devil games made the cut.

Two of the matchups included were big wins for the program and also one big loss that, in hindsight, still feels like a win in fans' hearts. Let's take a walk down memory lane and re-live those big moments in ASU football history.

3 big ASU games included in ESPN's Top 100 list for 2024-25 season

Oct. 5, 2024 - Arizona State 35, Kansas 31 (No. 31)

This back-and-forth thriller in Tempe was probably the moment ASU's challenge at the Big 12 title became serious to outside observers. The Sun Devils' surprising early success was looked at as nothing more than overperforming preseason expectations until this point.

Quarterback Sam Leavitt threw for 157 yards and four (!) touchdowns but it was running back Cam Skattebo's 39-yard touchdown burst that flipped the script for the fifth and final time in the fourth quarter to seal the momentum-building win for ASU.

Nov. 23, 2024 - Arizona State 28, BYU 23 (No. 9)

Sun Devil fans felt heart palpitations many times in the fourth quarter this season and this game against Big 12 leaders BYU was just the latest in a long string of moments that could've gone terribly wrong but didn't. A dominant first half by ASU was followed up by a second-half comeback by the Cougars that came up just three yards short on the final play of the game.

Fans will most remember head coach Kenny Dillingham fuming at officials for (rightly) putting one more second on the clock after Leavitt's pass out of bounds didn't end the game as planned and students stormed the field prematurely. Despite the win, it was a moment for Dillingham and the coaches to reevaluate their game management which eventually led to some pretty start-to-finish convincing wins for the team down the stretch. There was no shortage of drama in Tempe this year and this game was probably the pinnacle of it.

Jan. 1, 2025 - Texas 39, Arizona State 31 (No. 3)

What was almost the greatest victory in Sun Devil football history since winning the 1987 Rose Bowl, ASU put on one of the greatest comeback performances ever by taking mighty Texas to double-overtime. The defense came within one stop of winning the game (tragically) but the fact that ASU was playing in a New Year's Six bowl and qualified as one of the top four seeds in the College Football Playoff felt like a win in its own right.

Skattebo announced himself to the remainder of the college football world that still doubted him or didn't respect that fact that he should've been a Heisman Trophy finalist. Leavitt put on a performance that has him pinned as a quarterback to watch in the Heisman race next year and the team proved that it belonged as one of the national championship contenders. Sun Devil fans won't forget this game as long as they live - they'll just probably turn it off as soon they get to 4th and 13 in the first overtime period anytime it's on TV.