TEMPE, Ariz. — The last time that BYU and Arizona State were in the same conference, an 18-year-old true freshman, Jim McMahon, was the third-string quarterback for the Cougars. He was also the team's punter that year.
We have to go all the way back to 1977 to see the last time that these two schools played each other as conference opponents. Then, the Cougars and Sun Devils were fighting for the Western Athletic Conference championship. Arizona State bested the Cougars that November Saturday in '77, but both schools shared the conference title at the end of the season.
Arizona State was once the powerhouse of the WAC, but by the end of the Sun Devils' time in the conference, a new face had emerged in the West.
Frank Kush and the golden years of ASU football
In 1958, a 29-year-old Phoenix native, Frank Kush, took over as head coach for the Arizona State football team. Kush was an All-American defensive lineman and national champion at Michigan State in his playing days and used that hard nosed D-line mentality to coach the Sun Devils to excellence.
In 22 years as a head coach, Kush led the Sun Devils to nine conference championships (two in the Border conference, and seven in the WAC).
His best stretch came from 1969-1977, when Arizona State won seven WAC championships in nine seasons, including two seasons where the Sun Devils went undefeated. In 1975, they went 12-0 and finished ranked No. 2 in the AP poll, their best finish ever.
Not only did Arizona State have massive success in the WAC, Kush seemed to always get the better of BYU. In 15 conference matchups, Arizona State went 12-3 over the Cougars. But in the middle of Kush's tenure in Tempe, a fellow future Hall of Famer would take over the struggling BYU Cougars and take them to heights that even Kush never reached.
In comes LaVell Edwards
It's hard to look back at 20th century BYU and think of a struggling football program, but up until the 1970's, that is exactly what BYU was.
In the first ten years of the WAC (1962-1971), BYU only had four winning seasons, and multiple two- and three-win years.
But the years of mediocrity quickly changed when LaVell Edwards took the reins in 1972. By his third season, Edwards guided BYU to its first-ever appearance in the AP poll and their first ever bowl game appearance. The Cougars lost to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl in 1974, but it was clear that BYU had found a gem in Edwards.
Under Edwards and Kush, BYU and Arizona State became the two dominant forces in the WAC. In the six years that the two coaches were in the same conference, either BYU or Arizona State won a share of the WAC championship every season
The best game between the two came in 1974. The game was sloppy and both teams combined for 14 turnovers, a number that seems nearly impossible.
Down by four points in the fourth quarter, BYU quarterback Gary Shiede found receiver Tim Mahoney in the end zone to give the Cougars the lead and eventually the win 21-18. This broke Arizona State's eight-game win streak over BYU, and more importantly, helped BYU win the conference championship after five straight years of being won by the Sun Devils.
This game proved that Arizona State was not going to run through the conference like they once had. Edwards and BYU were there to stay.
Arizona State joins the Pac-10; BYU rules the WAC
In 1978, both Arizona and Arizona State joined the Pac-8, making it the Pac-10. Kush left the program in 1980 after the program was involved in numerous NCAA sanctions and lawsuits, but Arizona State still found success in the post-Frank Kush era. However, while the Sun Devils were still a successful program, they never reached the level of greatness they had under Kush.
BYU took over the Arizona State-sized hole and won eight straight conference championships following the Sun Devils' departure. In 1984, the Cougars shocked the world by going undefeated and being ranked No.1 at the end of the season, earning the school's first and only national title in football.
A conference rivalry renewed
The two teams have played six times since the split, most recently coming in 2021 when the Cougars came out victorious in a thrilling game at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
In this year's preseason poll, both Arizona State and BYU were picked to finish at the bottom four of the Big 12, but are currently sitting in the top three of the new- look conference with only two games left to play. Nobody would have suspected that the November matchup in Tempe could decide the Big 12 championship game, but here we are.
Just like those battles for conference superiority in the 1970s, the Cougars and Sun Devils control their own destiny on Saturday night in Tempe.