The Big 12 football schedule for the 2024 season has not been released yet, and it looks like fans will have to wait a bit longer for its release.
Speaking at the Big 12 basketball media days, Big 12 Conference commissioner Brett Yormark was asked about the release date of the 2024 football schedule by KSL Sports, who questioned if the release would be in January.
“Hopefully earlier than January,” Yormark replied. “Sometime late November, December.”
Brett Yormark on the timeline for releasing the 2024 Big 12 Football schedule that will have 16 teams.#Big12 @kslsports pic.twitter.com/HE8RD6VoO2
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) October 17, 2023
Based on the quote, it would appear that Yormark was saying late November or early December, which would put the release near the conclusion of the 2023 regular-season or shortly afterwards.
Following the departure of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC and the addition of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah next season, the Big 12 will have 16 members in 2024. The four new members will join Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, UCF, and West Virginia.
The league will continue to play a nine-game football schedule with three non-conference opponents.
Yormark also provided some additional detail on their football scheduling preferences at media days.
“Our football scheduling has been guided by a few key parameters, geography, competitive balance, historic matchups, and rivalries. More details will be released in the coming weeks when it comes to our football schedule.”
The Big 12 should drop to 7 conference games with the 16 teams organized into pods as follows:
Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Utah
Baylor, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech
Cincinnati, Iowa State, UCF, West Virginia
Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State
Each team would play its pod rivals every year and rotate among the other pods on a 6-year schedule. Each year two pairings of pods would be paired with each other.
The drop to 7 conference games by the Big 12 and SEC is mainly to pave the way for lots more OOC games against other power conference teams but also to preserve rivalries that would otherwise be lost to realignment like Bedlam. It could also lead to the Border War between KU and Mizzou being revived annually.
Sigh, the “more OOC games” argument won’t happen, but you can keep dreaming. Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12 have increased their football membership, so it makes “sense” to play more conference games.
twk, Z-Man,
I like the Dream Z-Man.
I hope that All the already scheduled OOC Games for Buffaloes, Utes, Wildcats, Sun Devils, specifically those which are with current B12 Members e.g. Cougs @ Utes:’24 will remain OOC & keep the Trust 5 Opponents.
No 63 scholarship Downgrades.
ESPN and Fox are laughing Z. Ludicrous idea!
I’ve said for years that most conference games are not attractive ratings-wise, and that it is the OOC heavyweight clashes that pay the bills.
The should play 10 conference games, one P5 opponent and zero FCS opponents. These schools want the TV money. The best thing to do is provide better inventory. Schools like Ohio State and Oklahoma are not going to go out and schedule a tough opponent, so the Bucks played Youngstown State this year. So, to avoid that, make them play conference games. Sure, Ohio State could still play Youngstown State and Akron in the nonconference, but that could affect their playoff seeding going forward. And, with 12 teams, getting the bye will be desired. My guess is that most CFP champions will come from the schools that have the bye.
If they are sticking with 9, they should do the 3/6 model where you play the same 3 opponents every year and rotate through the other 12 by 6 one year and 6 the next. So, during a 4 year cycle a school would visit every other school at least once with the following permanent opponents.
Arizona – (Arizona State, Texas Tech, Utah)
Arizona State – (Arizona, BYU, Colorado)
Baylor – (Houston, TCU, Texas Tech)
BYU – (Arizona State, TCU, Utah)
Central Florida – (Cincinnati, Houston, West Virginia)
Cincinnati – (Central Florida, Houston, West Virginia)
Colorado – (Arizona State, Kansas, Utah)
Houston – (Baylor, Cincinnati, Central Florida)
Iowa State – (Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State)
Kansas – (Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas State)
Kansas State – (Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State – (Iowa State, Kansas State, West Virginia)
TCU – (Baylor, BYU, Texas Tech)
Texas Tech – (Arizona, Baylor, TCU)
Utah – (Arizona, BYU, Colorado)
West Virginia – (Cincinnati, Central Florida, Oklahoma State)
Actually, the Big 12 should divide its football schools into regional pods as follows:
Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Utah
Baylor, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech
Cincinnati, Iowa State, UCF, West Virginia
Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State
It makes a lot of sense to do it this way, because then the Big 12, outside the Texas schools can have consistency as to what teams play each other on Thanksgiving weekend as follows:
Arizona-Arizona State
BYU-Utah
Cincinnati-Iowa State
Colorado-Oklahoma State
Kansas-Kansas State
UCF-West Virginia
The Texas schools can take turns playing each other at the end of the season, since there are no two rivalries that really stand out among them.
Z’s pods make most sense.
.
I’ll add that the final season games should be for the Texas pod:
Houston v. Tech, both state public schools
.
Baylor v. TCU, both religious origin private schools
David, none of the Texas rivalries that will still be intact in the Big 12 have the intensity of rivalries that involve Texas or Texas A&M, which is why I chose a rotation for the end-of-season games in the Texas pod.
Stanford, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Washington State, and Oregon State are all dropping from 9 to 8 games, next year. I suppose that leaves room for the XII to do the same and pick up games against that set of teams. The increase from 14 to 16 teams pretty much negates any inventory concerns. Too late now, I suppose. The die is cast.