ESPN's FPI Predicts Colorado-Arizona State Matchup
Earlier this year, we used ESPN's FPI (Football Power Index) to simulate the first and second half of the Arizona State Sun Devils' football season.
Spoiler alert: ESPN's FPI has been 3-for-3 in predicting games thus far, as the formula used to generate matchups had BYU defeating ASU after the Sun Devils won their first two meetings.
As Arizona State moves forward to Colorado, so does the Football Power Index. In the preseason FPI, the Sun Devils held a 76% chance of winning their Week 4r meeting with the Buffaloes. The updated figure has now moved to 78%.
Those are incredibly high odds, especially given the team that Sun Devils fans were forced to watch in Provo last week. ASU has plenty to fix prior to taking the field, yet those fancy computers believe Arizona State has the advantage.
Taking a deeper dive into ESPN's PickCenter analysis, the final score of the game is projected to favor Arizona State by a tally of 30.2-16.4. For those of you with your wallets out, the over/under of 45 would hit the over, and the Sun Devils' spread of 14 would push.
There's no overstating how important a win this would be for Arizona State, on a multitude of levels. Starting 1-0 in conference play (a first under head coach Herm Edwards) would keep the Sun Devils on track of their goals to stay atop the Pac-12 South ahead of a road trip to UCLA, while also stitching together the confidence ASU players may have previously lost against BYU.
ESPN's FPI believes there's a great chance for the Sun Devils to fix their errors and clean up their mistakes before a big contest at the Rose Bowl that will come the following week.