With the NCAA football season coming to an end there are still teams who are fighting for their right and spot in the NCAA College Football Playoffs. The Big 12 Championship game is probably the biggest game of the championship weekend because of the single fact that whoever won this contest between Iowa State and Arizona State had an automatic bid in the College Football Playoffs. ASU is riding into its first season in the Big 12 and is already performing as a 7-2 team in the conference along with a 10-2 overall record. Iowa State is evenly matched with these records so the game will be interesting. Looking deeper into the teams Iowa State does not have a very good run defense so that could lead to a big problem just because of the fact that ASU has one of the top running backs in the country Cam Skattebo. ASU is without their number one wide receiver Jordyn Tyson for the rest of the season with an injury. ASU will seemingly be relying heavily on the run game and feeding Skattebo the ball. 

On the opening kickoff, ASU received the ball and on the first play from scrimmage, Skattebo got the handoff and took it down just past mid-field. ASU’s offense seemed to be going well and they were moving the ball at a quick pace but ended up having to settle for a field goal putting them up 3-0 in the opening drive of the game. Iowa State answered back very quickly, showing off the speed and athleticism their offense had by scoring a touchdown putting them in the lead 7-3. ASU answered back with a quick offensive drive putting them in the lead 10-7  which ended up being the score ending the first quarter and this game quickly seemed to be turning into a shootout. Iowa State soon answered back tying the game up with a field goal of their own. ASU fired right back in their next two drives scoring two touchdowns both being runs from star running back Cam Skattebo. ASU went into the half with a commanding two-touchdown lead 24-10.

ASU has had a big following of their slow second halves in the last few games and a lot of people thought it would be very easy for Iowa State to get back into this game very quickly. ASU quickly disproved this theory and came out and scored back to back to back touchdowns setting them up very easily to win this game. They had a commanding lead going into the fourth quarter up 45-10. ASU then put in their backups trying to keep their team healthy knowing they were going to be pushing forward into the college football playoffs. Iowa State was not showing signs of defeat but they were down by so much it was just too big of a deficit to overcome. They ended up scoring a field goal and touchdown but this game ended in a big victory fashion for Arizona State winning 45-19.