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Arizona State Football 2026 Schedule: Breakdown and Season Outlook
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- Arizona State Football 2026 Schedule: Breakdown and Season Outlook
You want to feel better about your team's 2026 college football schedule? Take a look at the brutal slate Arizona State has to deal with.
The team never shies away from a challenge under head coach Kenny Dillingham, but his Sun Devils have to do way too much traveling for way too many hard games.
The Good, the Bad, and Who Arizona State Misses in 2026
Arizona State head football coach Kenny Dillingham talks to his team during a time out at the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl against Duke at Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025.© Gaby Velasquez/ El Paso Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Good
There's the opener against Morgan State, and considering Kansas State opted out of a bowl game, technically, six of the nine Big 12 games are against teams that didn't come up with a winning season. However ...
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The Bad
Tempe, Arizona, is close to 5,300 miles away from London, England. Not only do the Sun Devils have to go to Texas A&M, but a week later, it starts the Big 12 season against Kansas in London.
Throw in road dates at Texas Tech, BYU, and UCF - along with down the road at Arizona - and there's way too much travel to deal with.
What Big 12 Teams Arizona State Will Miss
Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, TCU, Utah, West Virginia.
Missing Utah is great, and the rest of the teams ASU misses are dangerous, but it has to play BYU and Texas Tech on the road - there's no margin for error anywhere.
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Arizona State's Best and Worst Case Scenarios in 2026
Best Case: Arizona State at least splits against BYU and Texas Tech
The Sun Devils fight the good fight against Texas A&M, get by Kansas in London, and then take care of home against Baylor and Hawaii before taking on Texas Tech. They get by either the Red Raiders or BYU - or both - win all the home games, and don't trip against UCF. Or ...
Worst Case: The travel crushes the season
The early game at Texas A&M is a loss, and the team is gassed a bit from the trip across the pond the following week.
They lose both the Texas Tech and BYU games on the road, can't get past UCF on the road, and the Territorial Cup against Arizona turns out to be a decent season instead of anything big and important.
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Arizona State Football 2026 Schedule
Sept 5 Morgan State
Sept 12 at Texas A&M
Sept 19 Kansas (in London)
Sept 26 OPEN DATE
Oct 3 Baylor
Oct 10 Hawaii
Oct 17 at Texas Tech
Oct 24 Kansas State
Oct 31 at BYU
Nov 7 Colorado
Nov 14 at UCF
Nov 21 Oklahoma State
Nov 28 at Arizona
Games That Will Decide Arizona State's Season
1. at Texas Tech, Oct. 17.Arizona State got the Red Raiders without their starting quarterback last year and pulled off the only regular-season win against the eventual Big 12 champs. This is in the middle of the campaign, and it should be the make-or-break moment.
2. at BYU, Oct. 31.The Sun Devils missed the Cougars last year, but this time around, they have to deal with the loaded Cougars on Halloween in what should be a must-win showdown.
3. at Texas A&M, Sept. 12.Yeah, the Arizona game is always huge, especially after losing last year, but pull this off in Week 2 against the Aggies, and the expectations for the 2026 season quickly change.
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Big 12 Schedule Analysis
Arizona
| Arizona State
| Baylor
| BYU
Cincinnati
| Colorado
| Houston
| Iowa State
Kansas
| Kansas State
| Oklahoma State
| TCU
Texas Tech
| UCF
| Utah
| West Virginia
Related: Baylor Football 2026 Schedule: Full Breakdown and Season Outlook
This story was originally published by College Football News on Jan 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add College Football News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
