On a warm New Year's Day in the Phoenix area, thousands of students and fans watched as ASU clawed its way back into the Peach Bowl only to fall just short of University of Texas in overtime on national television.
ASU proved to a national audience they belonged competing alongside the best teams in the nation, but the game may have also been the pivot point to a new rivalry that goes far beyond football and sports, and into academics, industry and beyond.
ASU men's and women's swim and dive team won the Big 12 championship in their first season in the conference, alongside the University's football and women's volleyball teams.
Before ASU's arrival in the conference, UT was a dominant team in the Big 12.
Between 1997 — when the first conference championship was held — and 2024, UT's women's swim and dive team won 22 times and the men's team never lost.
After 2024, UT left the Big 12 to join the SEC.
Casey McNulty, who works as a digital media intern and photographer for ASU's swim and dive, traveled with the team and saw firsthand how ASU dominated the Big 12 in UT's absence.
READ MORE: The deep dive: Sun Devil swimming No. 1 in the nation, but still unsatisfied
"It's always been Longhorn dominance and now, since they're gone, I feel like that's the legacy that ASU is going to create," McNulty said. "If Texas was in the Big 12, still, I think it would have been a really interesting matchup. But for now, ASU is dominating the Big 12."
ASU's men's and women's swim and dive team won the 2025 Big 12 Championship.
Right after ASU's loss to UT in the Peach Bowl, the University faced UT once again in a swim and dive meet. But for ASU's team, the scars ran deeper.
Bob Bowman coached the University's swim and dive team from 2015 to 2024. In 2023, he led ASU to their first-ever Pac-12 conference championship.
Two days after he led them to their first NCAA championship in 2024, he suddenly left to coach for UT.
READ MORE: Bob Bowman leaves ASU for Texas to be new director of swimming & diving
"No one knew it was coming. The swimmers found out that he was leaving the exact time that everyone else did," McNulty said. "There was no preparation and leaving right after you win a national championship didn't sit well with the team."
The scoring at the January 2025 meet was interesting, McNulty said. Usually men and women are scored separately, but at that match, the scores were combined.
UT and ASU's men's teams are more evenly matched, McNulty said, whereas the UT's women's team are a lot better. Combining the scores guaranteed the win for Texas, McNulty said.
"That's what Bob's like," McNulty said. "He's like that. He'll play dirty to take those wins sometimes."
For ASU football player CJ Fite, a junior studying business entrepreneurship, the loss against UT was motivation for practice and upcoming games.
"In general — like school against school — to be honest, we don't think much of it," Fite said. "Just another team in the list of schools we play against, we're gonna play as hard as we can to compete."
But the rivalry between ASU and Texas goes beyond sports.
In an episode of State Press Play, Michael Kozicki, a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, talked about the process of securing federal funding for a new advanced semiconductor fab.
"Texas has been absolutely gigantic in microelectronics for a very, very long time," Kozicki said. "We were up against Texas as like in the shortlist for this latest program in microelectronics."
The new semiconductor fab is funded by the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, and ASU was selected as the location for the national laboratory.
READ MORE: ASU announces semiconductor facilities, partnership with Department of Commerce
Kozicki credited the existing industry and infrastructure in Arizona as the reason why ASU secured the lab. ASU has been in the semiconductor industry since the 1980s and is not "a flash in the pan," Kozicki said.
"The state of Texas was supporting their bid to the tune of, I mean, something like $600 million," Kozicki said. "We didn't have $600 million to put into this process, and yet we still won."
Arizona and Texas also have a storied history when it comes to professional sports.
The Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys go way back in rivalry. During the Phoenix Suns' "seven seconds or less" era, they went head-to-head with the San Antonio Spurs multiple times. Even in recent playoffs, the Suns fought with the Dallas Mavericks. And in 2023, the Arizona Diamondbacks lost to the Texas Rangers in the World Series.
"It's just taken a while for the momentum to build up," Kozicki said. "But they say 'Slow and steady wins the race,' a lot, and definitely this area has won that race."
Edited by Senna James, Sophia Ramirez and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at cgreenw9@asu.edu
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Connor is a junior studying journalism and mass communication. This is his second semester with The State Press.
