Sun Devil Athletics

Sparky and the players take the field during ASU Football’s spring game on April 15, 2023.

Arizona State University's football team started its final season in the Pac-12 with a win last week over Southern Utah. The Sun Devils host future conference rival Oklahoma State on Saturday.

A lot has changed in college sports over the past month or so, especially in terms of conferences. ASU, University of Arizona, University of Utah and Colorado Boulder have left the Pac-12 for the Big 12; Oregon State and Washington State join the Southern California and UCLA in the Big 10 and most recently, California and Stanford agreed to join the Atlantic Coast Conference. All of that essentially ensures the end of the Pac-12, at least as we’ve known it.

To get a sense of what all of this realignment means for college sports and the student-athletes who play them, The Show sat down with Victoria Jackson, a clinical associate professor of history at ASU, and Paola Boivin, who’s covered the Pac-12 in both Los Angeles and Phoenix, the latter at the Arizona Republic. Boivin is now the director of the Cronkite News Phoenix Sports Bureau at ASU’s Cronkite School. 

Nick Sanchez/KJZZ

Paola Boivin (left) and Victoria Jackson in KJZZ's studio.

More stories from KJZZ

• The future of the Pac-12 is up in the air after moves to the Big 12
• ASU and UA are leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big 12 in 2024