Last Night's Winner: Arizona State Does Its Part To Embarrass The Bowl System

Thursday was your day, Sun Devils. First, your researchers define biological life as we know it. Then, more importantly, your bizarre win over Arizona (2 blocked PATs!) allows you to officially petition the NCAA to admit the bowl system is a farce.

No longer simply a punchline for safety school jokes, ASU has a good shot to be a punchline for everything that's wrong with the college football postseason. Their super-dramatic double overtime win in Tucson brings them to a whopping .500 on the season, which would normally make them bowl-eligible. That's sort of a ludicrous baseline already, but those 35 bowl games aren't going to select themselves.

But here's where it gets good. The Sun Devils, you see, opened up their season with dominant wins over Portland State and Northern Arizona. Both FCS (formerly Div. 1-AA) schools. Yes, the NCAA wants certain teams to fatten up on cupcakes in the early going, but they don't want them to overdo it. So because ASU scheduled two FCS school, their benchmark for bowl eligibility was raised a game, to seven wins.

They didn't get there. But really sticking it to those Vikings and Lumberjacks on your nonconference slate should count too, right? So Arizona State has petitioned the NCAA to declare them bowl eligible, even with a full third of their wins coming against FCS schools.

But it wouldn't have come to this without last night's strange, strange upset. Down six with 27 seconds left in regulation, Arizona got their touchdown — and had the extra point blocked by DE James Brooks. Fast forward to double OT, where Arizona, down seven, found the end zone again. Only to have their PAT blocked again. By James Brooks.

In my mind, that's more impressive than the discovery of bacteria that use arsenic rather than phosphorous as their building blocks, a finding that dramatically increases the chance of extraterrestrial life existing.

And to complete the trifecta, this:

What a day for Tempe.