On Sunday, Football winning the Pac-12 South (69 percent) took down the win over Arizona (31 percent).
The football team went into Los Angeles and won the Pac-12 South. The hockey team went into Delaware and won the national championship. Which was the best moment of the year for Arizona State?
Seed No. 1: Football wins the Pac-12 South
Throughout the 21st century, Arizona State football has gained a reputation of not being able to take that next step into elite status. Didn't Arizona State have all the makings of a football powerhouse? Large school, great location, good recruiting territories, improving facilities, what was missing?
When Todd Graham was hired in December of 2012, he immediately began talking championships. In his second season, he delivered a Pac-12 South championship when the Sun Devils went on the road and defeated the UCLA Bruins.
It was a game contested on Nov. 23, 2013 between the two preseason favorites in the South. It was a high scoring affair from the start, with the teams combining for 24 points after the first quarter.
In the second, the Sun Devils began to distance themselves from the Bruins thanks to a Carl Bradford pick-six and a Jaelen Strong touchdown reception with five seconds left in the half. Arizona State led 35-13 at halftime.
However, UCLA crept back in the game in the third quarter, outscoring the Sun Devils 14-3 in the third frame to pull within 11 with 15 minutes to play. With just over 11 minutes left in the game, Brett Hundley found Shaquelle Evans on a 27-yard touchdown pass to pull UCLA within five (two-point conversion failed).
In the final minutes of the game, the key plays went the Sun Devils way and thanks to a missed field goal by the Bruins and a crucial sack by Chris Young in the redzone, the Sun Devils came out on top by a score of 38-33. The Sun Devils had won the Pac-12 South and would be playing for a trip to the Rose Bowl.
No. 3 seed Arizona State hockey wins ACHA national title
They went 34-2 in the regular season, won the Cactus Cup against the University of Arizona, won the Western Collegiate Hockey League, entered the national tournament as the No. 1 seed, and on March 11, the Sun Devils won it all on ice.
In Newark, Delaware, Arizona State completed its goal of bringing home the program's first national championship. Freshman forward Ryan Ostertag netted the first two goals of the game, then it was fourth line - a line which carried the team throughout the entire tournament- winger Troy Scott who scored the empty-netter to clinch the Murdoch Cup.
Arizona State was as dominant of a team as you could find anywhere. It lost twice all season, to Oklahoma who was seeded No. 2 in the tournament, and arch-rival Arizona. Including tournament play, Arizona State scored 5.6 goals per game and allowed only 1.4 per game.
The Cup was also the exclamation point on a season that later saw freshman goalie Robert Levin win Rookie of the Year, senior forward Kale Dolinski win Player of the Year and coach Greg Powers win Coach of the Year.
Hockey (65 percent) takes down football winning the Pac-12 South (35 percent).