Big 12 Football Media Days open new world for Sun Devil Athletics
ASU's helmet is part of a display of all 16 Big 12 school helmets at the first day of the Big 12 Football Media Days on Tuesday, July 9, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
LAS VEGAS — The Mountaineer from West Virginia carried his musket in one arm as he walked across the field at Allegiant Stadium.
A few yards away, Cosmo the Cougar, the mascot for Brigham Young University, was choreographing dance moves with two cheerleaders. Across the field, four Las Vegas chorus girls decked out in colors that only can be described as iridescent, posed for photos.
In the middle of all the chaos that marked Big 12 Football Media Days stood Arizona State University football coach Kenny Dillingham, himself looking sharp in a maroon sports coat and maroon pants.
Hey, Big 12 fans: This is what ASU athletics is all about
ASU begins its inaugural season in the Big 12 and brings with it a history that includes 148 national championships.
Here's a few tips for new visitors to ASU.
ASU’s move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 — along with the University of Arizona, Colorado and Utah — was announced in August 2023, but it became real when the conference’s 16 teams gathered for the two-day media extravaganza at the home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.
More than 500 media members were credentialed, and each team was represented by its coach and four players.
“It’s an exciting new world,” said ASU Athletic Director Graham Rossini. “The Pac-12 is always going to be a part of our legacy. We’re going to honor our roots, but we have to be focused on what’s coming next. There’s a lot in front of us, a lot of opportunity for us to take advantage of. So we’re just eyes forward on the Big 12.”
On Monday night, Dillingham arrived in Las Vegas, along with defensive back Xavion Alford, center Leif Fautanu, running back Cameron Skattebo and defensive lineman Clayton Smith.
When Dillingham and the players arrived at Allegiant Stadium a little after 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 was evident in a million ways.
Like the Big 12 Tune-In Radio show. Or Bruiser, the Baylor Bears mascot. A promotional postcard being handed out by a representative from the University of Central Florida. Even the ping-pong table in the players’ lounge was adorned with the Big 12 logo.
There were reminders of the good-old Pac-12 days thanks to Arizona, Colorado and Utah being represented, but when BYU TV is doing interviews, well, it’s obvious that times — and conferences — have changed.
“I think it’s good for ASU to play some new teams and play in some different places,” Alford said. “It’s going to be fun.”
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Head coaches Kenny Dillingham (left), from ASU, and Joey McGuire, from Texas Tech, chat before the start of the first day of Big 12 Football Media Days on Tuesday, July 9, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Sun Devil Athletic Director Graham Rossini talks with a reporter during Big 12 Football Media Days in Las Vegas.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Sun Devil Football players Clayton Smith (left) Cameron Skattebo (front) and Leif Fautanu (right) talk to reporters during Big 12 Football Media Days in Las Vegas.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Sun Devil Football Coach Kenny Dillingham addresses members of the media during the coaches' press conference at Big 12 Football Media Days event in Las Vegas.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Sun Devil Football Coach Kenny Dillingham talks with members of the media after addressing them at a press conference during Big 12 Football Media Days.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Sun Devil defensemen Clayton Smith (left) and Xavion Alford are interviewed by SiriusXM during Big 12 Football Media Days.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Sun Devil offensive lineman Leif Fautanu is interviewed by ESPN during Big 12 Football Media Days.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Big 12 mascots, cheerleaders and some Las Vegas chorus girls pose for a group photo during Big 12 Football Media Days at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
The best way to describe Media Days is to think of it as two parts. On a large stage at the south side of the stadium, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and eight of the conference’s coaches — the other eight schools were represented day two on Wednesday — addressed big-picture items.
The coaches talked about the reconfigured conference, NIL (name, image and likeness) and the future of the sport. Yormark said the Big 12 is “more relevant now than it ever was before,” and said the inclusion of ASU, Arizona, Colorado and Utah was the “ace scenario for us.”
“We’re a national conference,” he said. “We have 16 great brands.”
Rossini was thinking big picture, too, envisioning what a nationwide conference like the Big 12 — it stretches from central Florida to Arizona — can do for ASU’s brand.
“We’re in every time zone. We have, I think I saw the numbers, 90 million fans across the 16 institutions,” Rossini said. “So, it is scale. It is national coverage.”
Meanwhile, Dillingham and ASU’s four players were making the rounds, posing for promotional shoots and spending 30 minutes with FOX Social, 30 minutes with ESPN, 45 minutes with the Big XII content team. On and on it went; every minute of their time — from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. — accounted for.
The questions were mostly routine: Were they looking forward to playing in the Big 12? How did they think the Sun Devils would fare? Is there one road trip they’re really looking forward to?
Smith, who played his freshman season at Oklahoma, warned his teammates about what they can expect when ASU plays at Oklahoma State on Nov. 2.
“I told them it’s going to be rowdy,” he said. “Everybody will be wearing orange — Oklahoma State’s primary team color — and it will be loud.”
There was one, well, interesting stop for the players. In the dark University of Nevada, Las Vegas locker room (UNLV plays its home games in Allegiant Stadium) a member of ESPN’s content team asked the four Sun Devils some unique questions.
What was their favorite Halloween costume?
What is their favorite food? Their least favorite food?
How would they describe a teammate as a food?
That last question stumped Fautanu for a few seconds until he said, “Clayton Smith: He’s tough on the inside and tough on the outside,” like a burned steak.
The players did reveal a small window into Dillingham’s personality. Asked for a favorite expression of the coach, they all replied, “Life.”
“He probably says that 500 times a day,” Alford said.
By late morning, the Sun Devils were tired of the routine. They slumped down in chairs in the players’ lounge, looking forward to the day when football isn’t a conversation point but a game to be played.
Dillingham can’t wait, either. He knows this will be a year of adjustments for ASU, going to cities and stadiums they haven’t been to before and dealing with loud and boisterous fan bases in places like Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Texas Tech.
“The fan support in this conference is just really, really good,” Dillingham said.
But Dillingham hopes the move to the Big 12 — even if it’s bumpy at first — will eventually carry ASU’s program to new heights.
“I think people are going to really embrace the passion that this league has,” Dillingham said. “And I think it’s going to carry over into our own home games. I think when that happens and they embrace the passion and see what that passion really, really looks like, it’s only going to help ASU.”
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