Rivals No. 22 Arizona and Arizona State have met in back-to-back Pac-12 games. They have bookended the conference season. But they have never done this.

For the first time since the Wildcats and Sun Devils joined the Pac-12 in 1978, they will finish their home-and-home series six games into league play, crunch time be darned.

It is not the way a rivalry should work, Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley suggested as the Sun Devils (11-7, 2-3 Pac-12) prepared to host the Wildcats (13-5, 3-2) in the return match Saturday.