👋 GOOD MORNING - Happy Thursday. We’ve got a couple of favorable matchups in the college football world to get a look at this morning.

How about those Wildcat hoops though? Taking down UConn is no easy task. Arizona’s football opponent should be a bit of a proportionally easier challenge.

Let’s get to the action!

— Alex D’Agostino, PHNX Sports Daily Editor

It’s beginning to look a lot like crunch time for Arizona’s most prominent college football programs. Both the Arizona Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils sit at 7-3 and are playing at a high level.

Arizona is coming off a gritty, 30-24 win over the No. 25-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats on the road, while ASU fought back against West Virginia with a game-winning drive. The Sun Devils are now ranked No. 25 by the College Football Playoff selection committee.

And both teams will have an opportunity to build more of that momentum and continue their (improbable) quest for a conference championship this week. Both matchups are of the winnable variety as the conference schedule begins to wind down closer to the looming Territorial Cup.

Arizona (7-3, 4-3 Big 12) vs Baylor (5-5, 3-4 Big 12)
Game info: Saturday, 11:00 a.m.
Last Meeting: L, 20-15 (December 31, 1992 - John Hancock Bowl)

Baylor looked like one of the more dangerous teams in the Big 12 coming into the season, but they’ve lost three of their last four games, including a beatdown at the hands of the Utah Utes this past week.

Baylor will be looking to rebound, but they simply haven’t performed like a legitimate contender very often in 2025.

Arizona, meanwhile, has appeared to hit their stride at the right moment. Taking down Cincinnati on the road was impressive, and they’ve shown an ability to execute at the most critical moments, even under significant pressure. Brent Brennan’s culture is beginning to take form, despite how ugly it looked at the beginning.

It’ll be the final home game of the season for the Wildcats in their newly-renamed Casino Del Sol Stadium. Pack it!

The keys for Arizona:

Baylor’s defense is the second-worst in the Big 12 in terms of scoring, but their run defense that suffers the most. They’re allowing nearly 200 yards per game on the ground to opponents. The Wildcats aren’t necessarily dominating on the ground, but they do have a solid backfield. Kedrick Reescano, Quincy Craig and Ismail Mahdi are a three-headed dragon with independently positive skillsets. As good as Noah Fifita has been this year, get the game going on the ground.

On the flipside, Baylor’s passing offense has been electric, leading the conference with 324 passing yards per game. QB Sawyer Robertson has 29 passing touchdowns and 3,210 yards on the season.

That said, Arizona’s passing defense has also been the best in the Big 12, allowing just 159.5 yards per game through the air. They’re also tied for first with 14 interceptions, while Robertson has thrown nine picks — the second-most behind TCU’s Josh Hoover.

This could be quite the matchup.

Arizona State (7-3, 5-2 Big 12) @ Colorado (3-7, 1-6 Big 12)
Game info: Saturday, 6:00 p.m.
Last Meeting: L, 27-24 (October 7, 2023)

Like an early-2000s emo band, the vibes are at an All Time Low in Boulder, Colorado (sorry). The point is, Deion Sanders and co. have been on the business end of two thrashings and a heartbreaker in their past three games. It really doesn’t look like it’s going to get much better for the Buffaloes, at least this season.

The Sun Devils, meanwhile, are proving their ability to win in tough moments despite missing multiple key players. Star WR Jordyn Tyson returned to practice this week, and while he is still questionable for Saturday’s game, there’s a chance ASU will get its top playmaker back against a porous Colorado defense.

QB Jeff Sims has done his fair share of silencing the haters, with a sturdy aerial attack in his last game proving he’s more than just a running threat.

There’s not that much nuance to this matchup. Colorado’s offense is second-worst in the Big 12 and their defense is third-worst. ASU has a chance to take full advantage as long as they…

It’s that simple. Avoid careless turnovers. Execute the gameplan. Colorado will make plenty of their own mistakes — capitalize on them. It doesn’t need to be fancy or creative, just disciplined.

I know, this is all “easier said than done”-type advice, but when facing a rudderless ship, the only way to lose the race is to cut off your own rudder.

Coach Kenny Dillingham hasn’t let that happen this season, even through all the adversity and injury woes of this Sun Devil team. A big win over Colorado can show the committee they made the right choice in ranking ASU, and a Big 12 Championship appearance may not be totally impossible, but the Devils can’t get ahead of themselves or play down to their inferior competition.

Reinforcements: The Cardinals opened RB Trey Benson’s practice window, with a chance he makes his return from Injured Reserve this week, though Jonathan Gannon did not officially determine Benson’s status for Jacksonville.

In addition, old friend and former Cards WR Trent Sherfield made his return to Arizona’s roster yesterday, along with punter Matt Haack. It looks like no Blake Gillikin for at least another week.

Marvin Harrison Jr., however, has been ruled out for the second straight week as he recovers from appendicitis.

UConn-t Stop the Cats: What a win. The Wildcat men’s basketball team continues its run of dominance with a massive 71-67 win over Dan Hurley and the No. 3 UConn Huskies. Jaden Bradley had another clutch performance with 21 points, Koa Peat had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Mo Krivas contributed 14 boards of his own.

Arizona has now downed the reigning national champions, the No. 15-ranked team and one of college basketball’s gold standard programs in three straight games.

Snake-Stream: MLB reached a new media rights deal with ESPN, NBC and Netflix yesterday, part of which hands MLB.TV (and, subsequently, D-backs.TV) streaming rights over to ESPN.

What does this mean? We don’t exactly know, yet, but nothing much will change for at least the 2026 season in terms of accessibility. There is, however, a distinct chance fans will have to pay more for their Snakes games in the coming seasons and will be forced into the ESPN app instead of MLB, but the price point has not been decided, yet.

Bear Down!