photo by: AP Photo/Amanda Loman

Arizona infielder Mason White (24) rounds the bases after hitting a home run during an NCAA baseball game against Oregon on Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Eugene, Ore.

The Big 12 Conference loses eight cumulative national baseball titles when Oklahoma and Texas officially depart the league at the conclusion of Sunday.

It gains nine back in return, though, by admitting Arizona and Arizona State from the Pac-12 Conference.

Together with Utah, a program coming off one of its best seasons of the millennium, the Territorial Cup rivals will ensure additional competition for recent successful programs like Oklahoma State and TCU, as well as additional obstacles on the way to the top for the likes of Kansas.

photo by: AP Photo/Amanda Loman

Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill (4) runs to first base during an NCAA baseball game against Oregon on Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Eugene, Ore.

Arizona

The 2024 season for the Wildcats finished a string of wild highs and lows near its conclusion. The program, which had been picked ninth in the Pac-12 prior to the season, achieved a national ranking with an 11-game winning streak, rose as high as No. 14 while claiming the league title on a final-game walk-off and then winning its conference tournament, but then lost back-to-back games in convincing fashion in its own home regional.

Arizona has made three straight tournaments under Chip Hale and last made the College World Series in 2021, the final year with Jay Johnson at the helm before he went to LSU (and hired now-KU coach Dan Fitzgerald as his recruiting coordinator).

The team figures to look quite a bit different last year after losing first-team all-conference players who went through senior-night festivities like pitchers Clark Candiotti (3.39 ERA) and Cam Walty (3.29 ERA). In fact, the Wildcats could have an entirely new rotation, as draft-eligible sophomore Jackson Kent, the Friday night starter, recently participated in the MLB Draft Combine and is ranked No. 137 by MLB.com.

Key potential returnees include a pair of sophomores in outfielder Brendan Summerhill, the batting average leader who hit that title-winning walk-off, and infielder Mason White, who clubbed 19 home runs on the year.

The draft could also siphon off some potential impact freshmen for Arizona. In the meantime, the Wildcats have been loading up on arms, including Christian Coppola from Rutgers, Collin McKinney from Baylor and Jack Berg and Garrett Hicks from the JUCO ranks.

photo by: AP Photo/Amanda Loman

Arizona State outfielder Kien Vu (11) catches a ball during an NCAA baseball game against Oregon State on Saturday, April 6, 2024, in Corvallis, Ore.

Arizona State

ASU, which finished smack in the middle of the 11-team conference despite being just three games out of first place, was quite simply a top-two hitting team in the Pac-12 last season and a bottom-two pitching team. Many of its games bore out the sorts of results one might expect from such a squad. In one May series against Washington the teams scored a combined 41 runs in the first two games and then another 39 in the third, a 21-18 win for the Sun Devils, for good measure.

The Sun Devils missed the NCAA Tournament for the third time in a row, so it’s been a bit of a fallow stretch for the dormant-powerhouse program. There are some good signs for ASU entering 2024, though. It acquitted itself well against its future Big 12 Conference competition in 2024, including beating Texas Tech twice and Kansas State once. It also figures to bring back many of the key hitters who helped it pile on the runs last season.

While All-American catcher Ryan Campos and outfielder Nick McLain are both highly ranked draft prospects, they are just two of the five Sun Devils who had an OPS greater than 1.000 last season. Outfielder Kien Vu was No. 6 in the country in batting average as a sophomore at .413 with a 1.290 OPS. Listed as a left-handed pitcher, Brandon Compton instead parlayed his hitting (.354/.427/.661) into a Pac-12 freshman of the year selection. And first baseman Jacob Tobias hit a team-high 18 home runs.

ASU had just one pitcher on its roster with a sub-4.00 ERA last season and many of its most frequently deployed arms exhausted their eligibility. The Sun Devils have brought in an experienced starter in Chance Daquila from Campbell, although he did not play in 2024 after he was a second-team all-conference pick the previous year. They also added a new catcher in former longtime Rice starter Manny Garza.

photo by: AP Photo/Stephen Brashear

Utah reliever Merit Jones during an NCAA baseball game against Washington on Sunday, March 12, 2023, in Seattle. Utah won 3-0.

Utah

One game below the Sun Devils in the extremely tight Pac-12 standings were the Utes, who with 33 wins matched their highest total since 1997.

The league’s top pitcher, lefty Bryson Van Sickle, had a lot to do with that and became the first-ever Utah pitcher to earn All-American honors. So did outfielder Kai Roberts, an offensive weapon who had a team-high .992 OPS with 58 RBIs and a league-leading team-record 33 stolen bases. Both went through senior day and the Utes will have to move on.

Utah’s other top players were both juniors last season, though they were not invited to the draft combine. Closer Micah Ashman racked up 11 saves, a sub-1.00 WHIP and a 3.08 ERA, while infielder Core Jackson led the Utes in batting average (.363) and on-base percentage (.463).

More like ASU than Arizona, Utah was not particularly deep when it came to starting pitching during the 2024 campaign. Its four most common starters besides Van Sickle, who combined to start 37 games (led by Merit Jones’ 13), had ERAs ranging from 4.76 to 7.55. Two were underclassmen, though, and three retain eligibility overall.

Demitri Diamant, a former two-way reserve at Georgia Tech, has already announced his transfer to join the Utes. Otherwise, Utah will be counting on some pitchers to transition up from lower levels of competition, such as JUCO righty Jackson Bolender and former Division III pitchers Mateus Conaway and Brady Joyner. The Utes acquired a highly touted recruit who redshirted his lone year at LSU in infielder Austen Roellig.