On the road: Discussing the Big 12 with ASU journalists

TEMPE, Ariz. — Yes, you’re reading this right. At the time of me writing this, I am all the way in Arizona getting ready to cover the highly touted No.14 BYU vs. No.21 ASU matchup.

Along with five other BYU journalism studetns, I went to the Cronkite School of Journalism to get analysis from ASU sports journalists covering their teams’ first year in the Big 12. Thanks to Adam Kunin, Patrick Holleron, and Ryan Sykora for taking the time to sit with me.

What is ASU’s impression of the Big 12 so far? Are there any notable differences compared to the former Pac 12?

Adam Kunin: There was a split going into the season. A lot of people weren’t thrilled about the Pac-12 dissolving and ASU moving to the Big 12. I love the Pac 12, that was my childhood conference and I was sad to see it go, but you have to move forward. ASU was able to find a landing in the Big 12 and it's really worked out for them. In terms of growth for the program, the NIL for ASU is continuing to grow in the Big 12. It's a little funky seeing ASU having to go to some different places and play in the Midwest or on the East Coast; I still think it is a little bit of an adjustment process. I think going forward, they are content with where they are in the Big 12.

Patrick Holleron: Looking at last year at their typical opponents, you had Oregon, Oregon St., Washington, USC. Now you have all these new opponents and there isn’t really history behind it. You are having to learn opponents that you normally wouldn’t have to focus on unless you made the old CFP format and for a lot of them, the odds of that happening were slim. It's definitely not what everyone wanted. You would have wanted the Pac-12 to stay together. It's a historical conference. But you’ve kind of seen them adjust with this being the reality and making with what they have and they’ve had success with it.

Ryan Sykora: For people who are Arizona State fans, not to use a cliche of you get to go to new places, but you get to go to actual places, not just L.A. You get to go to college towns, you get to go to Lubbock, Texas, or Manhattan, Kansas, and see what college football at its core really is. You don’t get that here in Arizona with all the pro sports teams here and then [when you visit] LA. You don’t get the same vibes as Stillwater (Oklahoma State) in homecoming week. If you are a fan who is going to a game, you want to go to that one because you get to experience what it's like for an entire community to live and die with a college football team. That’s the coolest part about the conference change.

Is having new Big 12 teams like BYU & ASU in the top three encouraging or discouraging for the conference?

Kunin: I was surprised that teams like ASU, BYU, and Colorado would be in a spot like this to not only be in the race but almost control their own destiny to go to the Big 12 championship. I don’t know if that's necessarily a bad thing for the conference. I think that the Big 12 has always bought into being a little bit different. If you want to say the playoff and them only getting one team in then yeah, but if you take that out of the equation, it makes the conference a little bit different and almost more appealing rather than just being the third tier to the SEC and Big 10.

Holleron: People love chaos. People love these unpredicted scenarios and so this is just at its finest. No one was anticipating that this Arizona State vs. BYU game [was going to be this big.] If you asked someone at the beginning of the year if this was going to have major College Football Playoff ramifications they would ask where did you even get that from? This is what people buy into and love. Having these teams come out of nowhere draws people in and gets people more interested.

Sykora: The chaos is great for the sport, but not great for the conference because you want to be represented as much as you can be. We, as outsiders of the actual teams, don’t know as much as we think we do. We don’t know that BYU has this elite quarterback or this outstanding wide receiver. We don’t know if Arizona State has all this talent that they have this year and if they will put it all together. We don’t know things until we actually see them and I think that’s the best part about getting stuff like this. You get to watch something you didn’t expect and learn.

Has the CFP committee's treatment of ASU and the Big 12 been fair in your mind?

Holleron: This is a whole new process and they’ve never done this before. There will definitely be some things where they kind of have to feel it out, engage and deem how they’re being fair in it all. In the Big 12, I don’t know if two teams making it is realistic because none of them have really separated themselves. This is a learning process. What they decide this year with it doesn’t necessarily mean they will think that way 2-3 years from now. They are still trying to decide how to evaluate teams in this new playoff format.

Sykora: It’s going to change every year. There are new people on the committee every year who will go by different values, and different chairs too. These groups of people will determine how they want it to be every year. When the media and viewers complain about it not seeming consistent; well of course it’s not. If the Big 12 wants multiple teams in, then they need chaos, BYU beating the breaks out of their next two opponents and then for Colorado to win the championship against BYU.

Do you think preseason rankings impact current rankings too much?

Kunin: In the midweeks definitely. By the end of the season, it probably plays itself out either way. There was a period where people felt ASU should be ranked and were tettering on that 25-30 range and receiving votes, but weren’t able to get into the top 25. If they had started higher in people's minds, they would have been ranked at a certain point. For BYU, people were upset because they were ranked lower than SMU despite beating them on the road. So maybe stigmas about ASU's and BYU’s record do play a factor, but everything will play itself out eventually.

Sykora: I don’t think it matters. If BYU wins out, they’re in the playoffs. The committee will just rank a team as they see fit. Preseason rankings have always been dumb, but necessary so we can have dialogue and discuss who is overrated or underrated. It’ll start to matter more when it gets to conference championship week because, compared to an SEC team not in the championship, if an ASU team beats Colorado in the championship then they jump in the rankings. But at this point in the year it doesn’t matter because if you do your job, you’re in.

Looking toward the future, do you think the Big 12 will become more relevant as teams like BYU and ASU adjust to the new conference? 

Kunin: Who knows what's going to happen in the next couple years? There is a chance that the SEC and Big 10 break off completely. It’s an interesting dynamic with the NCAA because nobody really knows who is in charge. At the end of the day, it might be those two conferences that decide the future of college football. It’s going to be hard to change the stigma of the Big 12 due to the brands the Big 10 and SEC have.

Holleron: I hope it gets bigger, but if the mega-conference comes into reality then that changes the whole dynamic. NIL and recruiting is also a huge factor. Having a guy like ASU QB Sam Levitt should get people excited. The last time ASU had anyone this exciting was Brandon Auyik and that team wasn’t even that great. When you have guys of that caliber, it changes how your program is perceived.