The Sun Devils return from their bye week still feeling the high from Jeff Sims' impressive performance in the win over Iowa State. It single-handedly kept their season alive, and they're now heavy favorites over West Virginia this week.
Still, though, Arizona State needs some help. They're currently tied for fifth in the conference and hold few tiebreakers at the moment. But several of the teams ahead of them in the standings face significantly more difficult schedules going forward.
So here's all the games where Sun Devil fans should have a rooting interest this weekend.
Baylor over Utah
The team that Arizona State is currently tied with in the standings is Utah, and the Utes wiped the floor with them earlier this year. That said, Utah has two conference losses - to Texas Tech and BYU - and a third would effectively eliminate them from Big 12 title contention.
They're on the road this week, and this program has generally struggled on the road. Of their 16 losses over the past four years, 13 of them have come away from Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Granted, Baylor hasn't been the best this year. They're 5-4 on the season and just 3-2 at home, with one of those wins coming over FCS Samford. Still, Dave Aranda's squad has been a tough out; they upset SMU earlier this year and nearly beat Arizona State.
The Utes are favored, but the Bears should relish the chance to play spoiler here. They would also become bowl eligible with a win, in case they needed extra motivation.
UCF over Texas Tech
Perhaps the most unlikely scenario on this list, but it's still worth mentioning. Texas Tech has just one conference loss, but that was to the Sun Devils, so another loss for the Red Raiders would be massive for Arizona State.
That seems unlikely to happen this week, with Texas Tech hosting a UCF program that's lost five of their last six contests. That said, Scott Frost and the Knights are starting to figure some things out. After narrow losses to Kansas and Cincinnati earlier in the year, they blew out West Virginia and led Houston through three quarters this past weekend before giving it up.
Again, this one feels like the longest shot for Arizona State, but you never know.
TCU over BYU
If Texas Tech doesn't lose again this season, that's technically fine. Arizona State only needs to finish the regular season in second place to reach the Big 12 title game, but if it's not the Red Raiders faltering, it needs to be BYU.
The Cougars just lost their first game of the year - to Texas Tech - and another would bring them even with the Sun Devils. Since the two teams don't play this year, such a tie would involve another tiebreaker scenario, which could get even more complicated if other teams are involved.
Still, a BYU loss is a net positive for Arizona State. This week they host TCU, who will be a featured player on this list for the rest of the season. After facing BYU, the Horned Frogs play Houston and then close out their year against Cincinnati. All of those teams are threats to the Sun Devils right now.
Focusing on this week, though, TCU presents a similar challenge that Texas Tech just did. While lacking the same type of elite firepower, the Horned Frogs are still a handful for anyone. Beating BYU is a tall task, but the chance to play spoiler can add extra motivation for the Horned Frogs.
The unmentionable scenario
The aforementioned Cincinnati Bearcats are another team that needs to lose at least once more for Arizona State's odds to improve. Before going into their bye this past week, they dropped their first conference game of the year, losing to Utah.
Like Texas Tech and BYU, Cincinnati only has one conference loss at the moment. Adding at least one more in that column would help the Sun Devils greatly. Here's the rub, though: the Bearcats host Arizona this weekend.
Of course, we would never advocate rooting for the Wildcats. That kind of sin is truly unforgivable, and Sun Devil fans would likely rather miss out on the Big 12 title game than do such a thing. Which is perfectly understandable.
That said, of all the weeks where a win for the hated rival would actually be a good thing for Arizona State, this is the week. Do with that what you will.