The eagerly anticipated Big 12 Football schedule was announced this morning, and now Sun Devil fans can mark down the dates when they will get to see the new (and in some cases not so new) conference foes in person. Let’s examine not only the league contests that will take place in the fall but also the non-conference matchups that await the Sun Devils this year.
August 31 - Wyoming
The Cowboys have posted four consecutive winning seasons and recorded nine victories this past year (9-4), a feat this program has not achieved since 1996. It had a fairly pedestrian 5-3 mark in the Mountain West conference, but they began the season ironically taking down one of ASU’s upcoming opponents this year, Texas Tech, 35-33 in double overtime. It also beat Fresno State, a team that did shut out ASU last year, 24-19, and ended its season with a razor-thin 16-15 win over Toledo in the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl played in Tucson.
Wyoming’s most successful coach in program history, Craig Bohl, retired after that 2023 Bowl win and will be replaced by Jay Sawvel, who was the team’s defensive coordinator since the 2020 campaign. On the surface, it should be a smooth transition for Wyoming, and suffice it to say that even under a new coach, this is a game that can still present a formidable challenge right out of the gates for the Sun Devils.
September 7 - Mississippi State
This matchup should be the toughest non-conference game for ASU. The Bulldogs, though, is a team that is still trying to cope with the untimely death of their legendary head coach Mike Leach in 2022. Zach Arnett, who replaced Leach, did win the team’s bowl game in 2022, but this past year was quite a different experience as he was relieved of his duties, going 4-6 in the first ten games of the 2023 campaign. Mississippi State finished with its first losing season, 5-7, in a non-covid year since 2019.
This is another program that will face ASU with a first-year coach, and the Bulldogs’ hire, perhaps under the radar, was one of the more impressive ones in Jeff Lebby, who was Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator last season. And the fact that their recruiting class is ranked 20th in the nation with no fewer than 11 four-star players, coupled with a transfer class ranked No. 15, could potentially signal that even under new leadership, this is a team that can reverse its fortunes in short order.
September 14 - at Texas State
Even though the schedule for ASU was constructed several years before there were any thoughts about joining the Big 12, this game is obviously an opportune moment (just one of two games played in the state of Texas this year) for Arizona State to showcase itself to the Lone Star State which has already and is projected to continue to be a main recruiting territory for the Sun Devils. And their opponent, while being a program that recorded an 8-5 mark last season, its best mark since 2014, is also a team that has to replace its starting quarterback. While the Bobcats were set to add a very familiar name to Arizona State fans, former Arizona signal caller Jayden de Laura, the quarterback off the field legal issues, had him withdraw from the team just weeks after joining it.
All in all, what could have been a sneaky, challenging road game for ASU is perhaps now a matchup against a team that is going through some major changes after a successful 2023 season, not being able to adequately replenish the talent that they lost.
September 21 at Texas Tech
As a team that won more than eight games just once since 2009, Texas Tech is a program that, even during its better years, finds itself just around the middle of the conference’s pack. Now, with a transfer class ranked No. 20 and a recruiting class ranked No. 24, the Red Raiders certainly look to reverse course.
There were two meetings between both teams in the last ten years that were greatly entertaining. In 2017, the Red Raiders beat the visiting Sun Devils by the score of 52-45 as both teams combined for nearly 1,100 yards of offense. But the game that truly puts a huge smile on every Sun Devil fan’s face is the 2016 contest that resembled more of an arena league game where Arizona State running back Kalen Ballage scored eight total touchdowns, seven of them on the ground, beating a Texas Tech quarterback by the name of Patrick Mahomes who threw for 540 yards that evening in a 68-55 ASU win.
The meeting between both teams in Lubbock will be interesting as former Arizona State tight end Jalin Conyers transferred to Texas Tech last month. This contest might end up being the easiest Big 12 road game for Arizona State this year, but if this matchup results in another shootout, there’s no telling which team will come on top.
October 5 - Kansas
This is a program that naturally is on a never-ending quest to prove that they’re not just the proverbial basketball school. And with only four winning seasons this century, there’s undoubtedly a lot of work to do in that department. Nonetheless, their 9-4 2023 record is the first above the .500 mark since 2008, which is definitely a step in the right direction. Their head coach, Lance Leipold, has probably been on every hot board for a head coaching vacancy last month but did ultimately stay put in Lawrence, and much to the delight of the Jayhawk fans.
Oddly enough, the same number of incoming transfers (six) is also the same number of outgoing transfers, and they have a very modest recruiting class ranked 47th nationally. If this is a team that can build on its success with its returning players, then they naturally won’t be sneaking up on the rest of the conference like they did last year. This game definitely sizes up to be one of the toughest Big 12 matchups for Arizona State, and getting to host this team, which is expected to be in the Top 25 preseason rankings rather than traveling on the road and after a bye week (first of two bye weeks this year) is probably a benefit for the Sun Devils. The first-ever meeting between the programs should be an intriguing one.
October 11 (Fri.) - Utah
In a Big 12 conference where more than a couple of teams are going through massive changes, Utah, another team migrating from the Pac-12 to the Big 12, has been a model of consistency. Their last losing season was all the way back in 2013, and their 8-5 record is the lowest in a non-covid year since 2017.
Needless to say, the biggest reason why they were not able to record another double-digit victory campaign last year is the fact that their starting quarterback, Cam Rising, had to sit out the entire 2023 campaign due to a significant knee injury. Now he’s back, it does warrant a high level of optimism in Salt Lake City, and its fan base knows that the quality of its returning players will have the dictate this coming year since the Utes’ transfer portal and recruiting class don’t have rankings to boast about.
On its surface, the Big 12 conference does not appear as a daunting league for newcomers, and a program such as Utah, despite recruiting class and transfer class rankings among the worst in the conference, could very well be one of the juggernauts here as they were in the Pac-12 for quite a while. Facing Utah on a short week after playing at home the week before doesn’t hurt ASU here.
October 19 - at Cincinnati
This is the only returning Big 12 team that ASU faced prior to its first year in the Pac-10 in 1978, as the last meeting between the two programs was back in 1976. The Bearcats joined this conference last year, and a squad that was dominant in its previous five years in the American Athletic Conference was served a rude awakening in 2023, going 3-9, 1-8 in Big 12 play. Granted, last year was also the first year Scott Satterfield was at the helm, and that’s a scenario Arizona State fans can surely relate to when it comes to the learning curve that usually comes with a new regime.
With a recruiting class ranked No. 17, which could be negated some with a transfer class ranked 50th, maybe its newcomers can help usher a turnaround this year and avoid a wait for an additional season or two down the road. On paper, though, if you’re ASU, you’d rather play the perceived weaker Big 12 teams on the road, and Cincinnati does fit the bill here. Conversely, the challenge of traveling over 1,800 miles each way and a potential day game when your body clock will be three hours behind are anything but elements to gloss over from the Sun Devils’ perspective.
November 2 - at Oklahoma State
For a change, a Cowboys-Sun Devils meeting won’t be part of a home-and-home non-conference series, and both teams will face each other for the third consecutive year in a venue where ASU traveled to in 2022. Out of all the returning Big 12 teams from 2023, Oklahoma State ranked the highest last year with a 10-4 record as well as a 7-2 conference mark. It would come as no surprise if they were picked in the media preseason poll to either win the conference in 2024 or, worst case scenario, be ranked in the top three, even though their recruiting and transfer class rankings are not impressive by any means.
ASU will be looking to avenge their 27-15 loss in Tempe, a game where they were shut out in the second half, as well as the 2022 34-17 defeat in Stillwater. And will need to do so against a team that is a virtual shoo-in to find itself in the Preseason Top 25 rankings. The fact that this contest follows ASU’s bye week, which ensues their longest road game of the year (Cincinnati), is good timing for Arizona State.
November 9 - UCF
The University of Central Florida took an almost carbon copy path as Cincinnati (and UCF was also a powerhouse in the AAC) did in their first year in the Big 12. Yet, their performance was also somewhat better than the Bearcats’ but still resulted in a losing record (6-7, 3-6 Big 12).
Now with a transfer class ranked No. 12 and recruiting class ranked No. 33, Gus Malazan’s team probably feels that they’re much closer than Cincinnati getting over the hump this year. But this is also a home matchup that ASU feels they should be the favorite to win, and in order to finish with a .500 mark or better, they truly don’t have the luxury of dropping.
November 16 - at Kansas State
If there was a team on any Big 12 team schedule that fits the unofficial title of “the team that nobody wants to face,” chances that Kansas State would fit that bill.
The Wildcats certainly were one of the tougher teams in the conference last year, with a 9-4 record and 6-3 during the league’s slate. And we’re not going to harp on the weather facet too much, but no one will be shocked if the temperatures in Manhattan on gameday are much more on the frigid range than the balmy side of the temperature gauge.
This is a Wildcat team that can definitely find itself in the preseason top 25 rankings, does have a good deal of skilled players returning on offense, and much like his in-state arch-rival, Chris Klieman was another head coach that was attached to possibly fill some of the offseason vacancies and staying at the Little Apple is something that the fan base is greatly pleased with.
This can easily tie Oklahoma State for the toughest conference road game of the year for ASU and just one more formidable matchup that awaits Arizona State in the month of November.
November 23 - BYU
Yet another team that did well in the last few years before entering the Big 12, albeit as an independent rather than a member of another conference, but their inaugural season as part of a power league was also a rough affair. The Cougars posted a 5-7, 2-7 Big 12 record, and with a recruiting class ranked 43rd and a transfer class outside of the Top 100, one can wonder if the apparent overreliance on returning players can guide BYU to an improved second season in this conference.
The last meeting between Arizona State and BYU was a frustrating 27-17 Sun Devil loss in Provo during the 2021 season, a defeat that truly epitomized ASU’s underachieving campaign that year. Out of all the new out-of-state Big 12 foes, ASU will face not only this year but in the future. BYU is one the closest geographically to Tempe, and with a sizable Mormon population in the Valley of the Sun, one can expect these matches between both programs to probably be some of the more well-attended at Mountain America Stadium.
November 30 at Arizona
The icing on a frustrating 3-9 season for Arizona State was a bitter home loss to his archival to the tune of 59-23. It was the first time the Wildcats won back-to-back games against the Sun Devils since 2008-2009, and in 2024, they will try to win three in a row, something they did not accomplish since 1993-1995.
Stop me if you heard me say this, but Arizona is another program with a first-year head coach who is going to be on ASU’s slate, as former San Jose State head coach Brent Brennan is replacing Jedd Fisch, who is now the head coach at the University of Washington. Quarterback Noah Fifita and wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan stayed with the team, but other significant players departed through the portal following the coaching change. And speaking of the portal, the team added only four players to date while losing 19. Its 2024 recruiting class is ranked No. 55. All indications are that this is a program that is poised to take a (major) step back from its recent 10-3 season. Still, there’s no need to remind the Sun Devil Nation that you can often expect the unexpected in the Territorial Cup game.
Note: Out of the 15 opponents in the Big 12, each team will face nine conference opponents each year (with Arizona the only guaranteed opponent each year) and thus miss the remaining six league teams. The rotation throughout the 2027 season is listed below.
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