Deion Sanders Jr. sends heartwarming wishes to Arizona State as he pulls on preseason polls to flex Colorado's rise

The Arizona State Sun Devils, under coach Kenny Dillingham, clinched their maiden Big 12 championship title with a 45-19 blowout win over the Iowa State Cyclones during conference championship weekend. The win also guaranteed the Sun Devils a spot in the expanded 12-team college football playoffs.

It was a stunning turnaround for a team that was tabbed to finish bottom of the conference in the Big 12 preseason media poll. The other team tabbed to finish No. 13 in the 16-team conference was coach Deion Sander's Colorado Buffaloes, who ended up finishing joint top-tied with three different teams (7-2).

On Sunday, Coach Prime's eldest son, Deion Sanders Jr., used the preseason polls on X to flex on both the Buffs and other teams that finished at the top of the standings, totally flipping the table.

"It’s a beautiful thing seeing most of the teams projected to be at the bottom, at the top. Congratulations Arizona State, you deserve it!" Sanders Jr. tweeted.

Apart from Arizona State and Colorado, the BYU Cougars, who finished in the joint top, were also tabbed to finish No. 15, while the Baylor Bears, who were predicted to finish No. 11, finished No. 2.

Three of the four teams picked to finish in the bottom four of the Big 12 conference finished joint top in an almost unheard-of turnaround.

During his championship game postgame news conference after winning the Big 12, Arizona State coach Dillingham reacted to his team winning the conference after being picked to finish last.

"I don't know if any team's ever accomplished being picked 16th out of 16 and then winning a championship," Dillingham said.

Arizona State gets a college football playoff bye

The college football playoff committee had a few surprises on Sunday with the Alabama Crimson Tide being left out, but Arizona State fans will not care after their team was awarded a first-round bye, giving the players a breather before the rigors of the playoffs began in earnest.

The Sun Devils will face the winner of the clash between the No. 5 Texas Longhorns and the No. 12 Clemson Tigers. After the college football playoff announcement, Dillingham put the Sun Devils' astounding achievement in context.

"This is a dream come true for some of these kids. Sometimes you get lost in the playoff and where you're ranked and all this other stuff," Dillingham said, adding, "These bowl games have so much tradition. They've been around for so long that these kids grew up dreaming that they'd walk in there and be in a stadium and play in the Peach Bowl."

After clinching the No. 4 seed, the Arizona State team that was picked to finish last in the Big 12 is headed for a Peach Bowl game against all odds.