The Sun Devils' path back to the College Football Playoff just got a lot harder.
On Thursday, the CFP committee voted to switch up their seeding format after just one season running the 12-team playoff, per Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports. Now, teams will be seeded based solely on their ranking in the final CFP poll, with the top four teams earning first round byes.
The previous format reserved those first round byes for the four highest-ranked conference champions, and then the remaining teams were seeded according to their respective ranking. That format resulted in No. 9 Boise State and No. 11 Arizona State both getting first round byes.
The Sun Devils were helped out by the fact that SMU lost in the ACC title game to Clemson, who had previously been ranked below Arizona State. Once the final poll came out and the bracket was set, SMU was still ranked ahead of Arizona State, but the Sun Devils got the better seed because they had done what the Mustangs couldn't: win the conference.
Under the new format, Arizona State would have actually been penalized for winning their conference.
Rather than getting a first round bye, the Sun Devils would have been given the 11th seed, forcing them to travel to Pennsylvania to take on Penn State - another team that couldn't win its conference - in the first round.
The driving force behind this change was the complaint that giving conference champions an auto-bye made for an unbalanced bracket. Proponents of the change cited the fact that all four teams to get a bye lost their first game.
Of course, that ignores the fact that two of those teams - Oregon and Georgia - were ranked first and second, respectively, in the final CFP poll. Even under this new format, the Ducks and Bulldogs would've been given a first round bye; both teams got blown out, too, with Oregon losing 41-21.
This change wouldn't have erased either of those lopsided snoozefests, but it would erase the Peach Bowl between Arizona State and Texas. The same Peach Bowl that was hailed as not only the best game of the playoff but was just named the 13th best college football game of the century by David Ubben of The Athletic.
There was a simple clarity in the previous model. With the demise of the Pac 12, there were four remaining power conferences. If you win one of those, you're probably getting a first round bye and definitely going to the playoff.
Now, it's entirely possible - and, realistically, probable - that a conference champion from the Big 12 or ACC will be rewarded with a first round road trip to face an also-ran from the SEC, because "it just means more."
Never mind the fact that the only SEC team to win even a single playoff game last year was Texas, in their first season as a member of the conference.
This change in format is essentially showing that the CFP committee is willing to cave to the whines of teams who want to be rewarded for not being good enough when it matters most. It also renders conference affiliations mostly meaningless, now.
Who cares about winning a conference title if it doesn't entitle you to anything? It's now more advantageous to finish fourth in the SEC than first in the Big 12. Given that the best game of this playoff just featured the Big 12 champion taking the SEC runner-up to two overtimes, that's a ridiculous way to run this tournament.
It's also frustrating for Arizona State. of course, but they seem likely to start the year in striking distance of the top 12 spots in the rankings. This is about more than that.
The College Football Playoff just became less about crowning the best team in the nation and more about crowning the best team from the richest conference.