The Territorial Cup rolls back into Tucson on Friday, November 27, and this year the two rivals are headed in very different directions.
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FRI NOV 27 · 11:00 PM CT
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Arizona State
Arizona
Arizona State walked into 2025 as the defending Big 12 champs and limped out with an 8-5 finish, and the offseason didn't get any gentler. Sam Leavitt, the QB who authored the 2024 title run, suffered a season-ending foot injury and then left for LSU instead of testing the draft, leaving the Sun Devils to sort out a new starter between transfers Cutter Boley and Mikey Keene. Arizona, meanwhile, gets to keep the best story in the building: Noah Fifita is back for one more year after throwing a program-record 29 touchdowns in 2025, and he's said flat out his goal is a Big 12 title, not a personal trophy.
The gap in continuity shows up in the preseason polls — Big 12 media types slotted Arizona 3rd and Arizona State all the way down at 7th, a sign of just how much losing Leavitt and top-10 pick Jordyn Tyson stings. Arizona's own roster isn't bulletproof; the Wildcats churned through nearly 18 outgoing transfers and are nursing some tight end questions after their portal facelift, but replacing complementary pieces is a different problem than replacing your quarterback and your leading receiver.
None of that changes what the Territorial Cup means. Arizona leads the all-time series 52-45-1, even though Arizona State has owned the rivalry lately, winning 15 of the last 24 meetings. Brent Brennan's team gets a shot to flip that recent trend on its home turf, in front of a fan base that hasn't had a season this good in years after Arizona went 9-4 in 2025.
Arizona State Sun Devils
Arizona Wildcats
Fifita's supporting cast got a defensive facelift too — the Wildcats added Oregon safety Daylen Austin and Nebraska's Malcolm Hartzog through the portal, aiming for a sturdier unit than the one that let the season slip away in the Holiday Bowl loss to SMU. ASU is banking on unproven arms behind center to hold a rivalry road crowd at bay, and until one of Boley or Keene actually wins the job and settles in, that's the biggest swing factor for both teams heading into this game.
Arizona State Sun Devils
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Arizona Wildcats
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Kenny Dillingham got paid long-term to stick around in Tempe, so there's no urgency crisis for ASU, but this is exactly the kind of measuring-stick date where a shorthanded roster and a new starter feel pressure fastest. Arizona controls its own trajectory here — win the rivalry game with a quarterback built for a Big 12 run, and the rankings will follow. Tucson hasn't hosted a Territorial Cup with this much riding on the home team in a long time.
