Arizona State football has a much clearer picture of how their transition to the Big 12 will look, as their future conference opponents dropped Wednesday morning.
At Mountain America Stadium in 2024, the Sun Devils will welcome BYU, Utah, Central Florida and Kansas, three of whom were not Big 12 teams in the 2022 season. On the road in 2024, ASU will travel to Kansas State, Texas Tech, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State and Arizona.
BYU, Central Florida and Cincinnati joined the Big 12 this season alongside Houston, whom the Sun Devils won’t see until 2025 when they visit Tempe.
ASU coach Kenny Dillingham expressed his excitement over the schedule release during his Wednesday morning media scrum.
“It’s exciting, it’ll be a great challenge for our guys. New environments, I think that's one of the best parts. Everybody talks about the tradition of leaving the PAC, and there is a great tradition that I’ve been a part of, and there's a part of you that's sad. But there should be a big part of the fan base that says, ‘Man, I get to watch teams at home that we’ve never got to see ever.’”
It won’t be all new for ASU, with fellow Pac-12 schools Utah and Arizona joining them in the Big 12 in 2024. Deion Sanders and Colorado are also jumping to the Big 12 from the Pac-12, but the Sun Devils won’t meet them until 2025 when they travel to Boulder.
Many fans expressed their desire to preserve the traditions of the Pac-12, some of which date as far back as over a century. Dillingham did his part Wednesday to light the Big 12 fire under the Sun Devil fan base.
“Let's create new traditions as Sun Devil fans, as football teams — new rivalries that we didn’t even think could be created. That's what this opens up for,” Dillingham said. “Buy your season tickets for next year; let's be excited to see UCF at home and all those other opponents, but that's what it’s all about a new opportunity.”
As for the Sun Devils' opponents, ASU is 5-1 against Kansas State, 0-2 against Cincinnati, 2-2 against Texas Tech, 1-0 against UCF, and 2-3 against Oklahoma State, with two of those losses coming in the last two seasons. Kansas’s 2024 trip to Tempe will be the first meeting between the two schools in football.
Coincidentally, ASU played two of those teams during the 2002 season, those being a 46-13 win over UCF and a 34-27 loss to Kansas State.
ASU will face two of its Big 12 opponents going forward this season, with Utah this Saturday in Salt Lake City and Arizona in the Territorial Cup to end the season on Nov. 25.
Edited by Vinny DeAngelis, Sadie Buggle and Caera Learmonth.
Reach the reporter at jeigo@asu.edu and follow @JosephEigo on X.
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