Arizona State’s next Big 12 test now has a start time, and the Sun Devils will get a night slot at home when Baylor comes to Tempe on Saturday, Oct. 3.
The conference announced Monday that the matchup at Mountain America Stadium will kick off at 7:30 p.m. AZ time, 10:30 p.m.
EST. ESPN will carry the game, while the Sun Devil Radio Network broadcast airs on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.
Tim Healey will be on play-by-play with former Arizona State quarterback Jeff Van Raaphorst, and Kevin Turner will report from the sideline.
This will be only the third meeting ever between Arizona State and Baylor, and the teams already have a fresh chapter from last season. In their first game as conference opponents, the Sun Devils pulled out a 27-24 win in Waco on a walk-off field goal.
The only previous trip Baylor made to Tempe came back in 1990, when Arizona State won more comfortably, 34-13.
The quarterback matchup will look different this time. Last year, it was ASU’s Sam Leavitt against Baylor’s Sawyer Robertson. Both are gone now, leaving Arizona State with Cutter Boley after his uneven trip to London and, most likely, Baylor with DJ Lagway.
Lagway’s start to the season has already been interrupted by injury. After Baylor opened with a loss to Auburn, he sat out the next two games with an ankle issue.
Nate Bennett started in his place and guided the Bears to wins over Prairie View A&M and Louisiana Tech. On Monday, Baylor coach Dave Aranda said Lagway is back and feels good ahead of the Bears’ Big 12 opener against Colorado.
After that, Baylor heads to Tempe.
Arizona State has made Mountain America Stadium a real edge since joining the Big 12, going 11-2 there. The two losses have come against conference opponents, with Houston and Arizona both beating the Sun Devils in 2025 after ASU had gone a perfect 6-0 at home in 2024.
Baylor pushed Arizona State hard in their 2025 meeting, trading punches with the reigning conference champs before the Sun Devils finished it with the game-winner. Still, the Bears wound up 5-7, making that performance look more like an exception than the rule.
Now Arizona State has five home games and four road games left, but the road slate is no picnic with trips to No. 11 Texas Tech and No.
9 BYU. That makes the next stretch in Tempe even more important.
The Sun Devils will try to move to 2-0 in the Big 12 when Baylor arrives under the lights on Oct. 3.
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ASU's London Win Couldn't Hide Two Worrying Problems
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Even with the victory, the performance did not come with complete peace of mind. The Sun Devils still had two issues lingering in the background, the kind of problems that can be easier to ignore after a win in a showcase setting but become harder to brush aside once the season settles back into its normal grind. For ASU, the London stage delivered a memorable result, but it also left the staff with more to sort through than the final score might suggest. [Read more 🡒]
