However, 10 of those 12 largest cities are in Maricopa county, where Arizona State University is. One of the others is Tucson, which has University of Arizona. The remaining one is Yuma (population about 93,000), with no nearby state university. The 13th largest city is Flagstaff (population about 66,000), where Northern Arizona University is.
In terms of “one giant metro area” describing Illinois, that also describes Arizona.