How can ASU football win the Pac-12 South?

Arizona State football brought its highest expectations of the Herm Edwards era into the 2021 season, yet the program is going to need some help if it wants to play in the Pac-12 Championship Game to potentially reach the Rose Bowl.

The Sun Devils (7-3, 5-2) have posted losses to BYU, Utah and Washington State.

With two of those defeats coming in the conference, ASU would need Utah (7-3, 6-1) to lose both of its last two games because of the head-to-head tiebreakers (the Utes beat the Sun Devils). Then, Arizona State would have to win both of its remaining games to win the Pac-12 South crown.

Here’s what each teams’s remaining schedule looks like, along with ESPN’s Football Power Index prediction for a win in each game:

ASU remaining schedule
Saturday, Nov. 20 at Oregon State – 8:30 p.m. MST (50.9% FPI)
Saturday, Nov. 27 vs. Arizona – 2 p.m. MST (91.9% FPI)

Utah remaining schedule
Saturday, Nov. 20 vs. No. 3 Oregon – 5:30 p.m. (61.8% FPI)
Friday, Nov. 26 vs. Colorado – 2 p.m. (93.1% FPI)

If the Sun Devils win their last two games of the year and successfully win a bowl game, it would be Edwards’ first 10-win season as Sun Devil head coach. ASU previously went 7-6 in 2018, then 8-5 and 2-2 in the last two years.

ASU currently sits third in the overall Pac-12 standings behind Oregon and Utah.

If No. 3 Oregon were to make the College Football Playoff, Utah would likely receive a Rose Bowl bid — Jon Wilner posed the possibility of other Pac-12 teams jumping the Utes if Utah goes 1-2 down the stretch, losing twice to Oregon — advancing the Sun Devils into the next tier of bowl games the conference has to offer.