Arizona State football schedule ranked toughest in Big 12 Conference for 2024 season

Kenny Dillingham has his hands full in his second season as the Arizona State football head coach.

His Sun Devils are set to play in the Big 12 for the first time and they won't have an easy schedule to navigate in that first season in the conference.

The nine-game conference slate the Sun Devils will face is the toughest of the 16 teams in the Big 12 based on 2023 overall winning percentages.

The nine Sun Devil opponents posted a combined winning percentage of .578, with five winning at least eight games and seven playing in a bowl game.

In addition, the three non-conference opponents combined for a 22-16 overall record and two bowl appearances. The nine 2024 opponents that played in a bowl game finished with a combined 7-2 record in those contests.

More: ASU football game-by-game record picks, predictions for 2024 Big 12 schedule

Heartland College Sports recently ranked the three most difficult Big 12 football schedules for 2024 and had ASU at No. 1.

Of the Sun Devils' difficult 2024 campaign, Bryan Clinton wrote: "Arizona State is coming off a disappointing final season in the Pac-12, going 3-9 (2-7 Pac-12) in Kenny Dillingham’s first season. Unfortunately for the second-year coach, things don’t get any easier in 2024. For starters, ask any Texas Tech fan how fun that game against Wyoming will be. If they get through that, Jeff Lebby’s high-flying offense (Mississippi State) comes to town the following week before the Sun Devils head to San Marcos to take on Texas State. Remember how that went for Baylor last season? Then, when Big 12 play starts, ASU plays at Texas Tech before a bye week, followed by back-to-back home games against Kansas and Utah (potentially on a short week) in October. The month of November is what makes this such a difficult schedule, as Arizona State has road games against three of the top four teams in our power rankings: at Oklahoma State (11/9), at Kansas State (11/16), and at Arizona (11/30). Ouch."

Colorado's schedule was ranked the second most difficult in the conference for the upcoming season, while West Virginia's was No. 3.

Kansas' schedule was ranked the easiest, with Kansas State No. 2 easiest and Texas Tech No. 3.

More: ASU heads to Texas Tech for first Big 12 game; ends season vs. Arizona

We recently went through ASU's schedule, game-by-game, and predicted the Sun Devils' record for 2024 to be 5-7.

Getting five wins with that strength of schedule would be an impressive feat in Dillingham's second season as Arizona State's football coach and in his team's first season in the Big 12.

Michelle Gardner contributed to this story.

More: Breaking down Arizona State's 2024 Big 12 football schedule

Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU football schedule ranked toughest in Big 12 Conference for 2024