Have You Seen This? Arizona State takes shots at West Virginia ahead of Big 12 jump

CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT — Well, that's certainly one way to make friends.

Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah will join the Big 12 next season after the so-called Four Corners contingent saw the Pac-12 shrivel with the defections of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten.

And the Sun Devils' leadership isn't making the transition easy.

Less than a day after the formal proclamation Friday evening, Arizona State president Michael Crow and athletic director Ray Anderson addressed local media during football practice in Tempe, Arizona.

When Anderson was asked about the potential increased travel costs of a league that will stretch from the Rockies to the Appalachian Mountains and down to Orlando, Florida, the athletic director began speaking of regionalization within the league that now counts five members in the Mountain time zone (when the state of Arizona isn't on Pacific time) and four schools in Texas, as well as the eastern front.

Then Crow, who has long championed the Sun Devils' home conference since 1978, interjected.

"We're not giving you a remote office in Morgantown?" he quipped.

As the former Iowa State javelin thrower laughed, Anderson responded.

"I promise I'm not going to Morgantown," he said. "I'll assign that to (Arizona State deputy athletic director) Jean Boyd. Send me to Texas and the rivalry with Arizona and start a new one with BYU, Utah and Colorado."

While the two schools may be separated by 2,068 miles and three time zones, that may not be the smartest way to start to make friends as conference newcomers.

Even with the travel to the likes of UCF and West Virginia, the amount of travel required in the Big 12 will only be slightly more than that in the current Pac-12 — which stretches more than 1,400 miles northbound to Seattle.

According to information provided by ASU athletics, the average air travel in the 16 schools in the Big 12 will be 3 hours, 27 minutes — roughly 35 minutes longer than the average air travel to the Pac-12.

The average travel time decreases to 3 hours, 10 minutes when UCF and West Virginia aren't accounted. Anderson, for his part, was clearing playing along with his president's tongue-in-cheek quip.

That didn't stop Big 12 internet from firing back at Anderson.

And our favorite ...

This is how rivalries are made. We can't wait to see when Arizona State and West Virginia will meet under the Big 12 banner. But if it's not ASU's first game in the conference, it will be a missed opportunity.

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