With a convincing Big 12 Championship win and pleasantly surprising effort in the College Football Playoff, the 2024 Arizona State Sun Devils were a peach to watch. But unfortunately, that “lovable underdog” storyline didn’t last for very long.
The Sun Devils were nowhere near the best in house for the Big 12’s 2025 edition, ultimately finishing with a decent, yet far more modest record of 8-5 that was capped off by a loss to Duke (one of the main antagonists to all things holy in college football last year).
One shining light in that inferior run, however, was ASU’s upset over the Texas Tech Red Raiders, who ultimately served as the CFP’s 4-seed.
The result reminded us of the heightened potential Arizona State still possesses, and with the hunt for the Big 12 crown being no easier to predict for 2026, that has to fuel the dream of a Sun Devils comeback unfolding this fall—enthusiasm their schedule fails to mirror.
The reddest flags on the ASU agenda that stand out to me are the unforgiving road games and fuzzy-at-best league games. The former starts early with a trip to Kyle Field to challenge Texas A&M in September, followed by stops at Texas Tech (surely out for vengeance), BYU, UCF (the easiest of the bunch, but infamously not easy overall), and Arizona. Tough gig when you know how well most of those guys held up last season.
As for that fuzzy league play I had been talking about, we're going to be seeing Arizona State go to London for its entrance to conference play against a well-coached Kansas before an early bye week preps ASU for a Baylor that’s long been a mixed bag under Dave Aranda’s rule.
From there, it’s nothing but more foes that are impossible to gauge the ceilings of wedged between the aforementioned road affairs, including Kansas State (new head coach, between TTU and BYU), Colorado (last two years have been night and day, between BYU and UCF), and Oklahoma State (complete overhaul on roster and sideline, between UCF and Arizona).
Heck, even Hawaii could be easier, as the Rainbow Warriors are both coming off a boom of a 2025 campaign and visiting Tempe right before the Sun Devils link up with Tech.
Most would agree with me when I say that Kenny Dillingham has proven his ability to lead his Devils through much of the gray we’re discussing here today, so it’s not like I’m bracing for some complete ASU collapse. Rather, I’m simply not seeing another 2024 spawning from this mess. Perhaps another five-losser instead? That’s probably not preferred after tasting CFP status, but at least it'd keep Sparky afloat.
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