The college football landscape heads into uncharted territory as the Big 12 rolls out its 2024 football schedule, sans heavyweights Texas and Oklahoma for the first time in years. Instead, the conference is expanding its family with four new members: Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and welcoming back Colorado, according to reports from ABC15.
The newly minted 16-team league remains divided for none, blasting tradition out of the water, as every team will tackle nine conference games head-on. The Big 12's schedule revives several long-lost rivalries. November 9th will see BYU duke it out with Utah for their 101st skirmish, and Baylor gears up to renew acquaintances with Houston on November 30 for the first time since the mid-90s, as reported by USA Today.
One of the highlight competitions to mark on the calendar, the Big 12 will host the centennial Territorial Cup on November 30th when Arizona fields a home game against Arizona State, a tradition dating back to 1899. Already scheduled games such as Arizona versus Kansas State and Baylor against Utah will go ahead as nonconference games in honor of their original agreements.
The new Big 12 football season is tentatively set to kick-start on September 14 with UCF visiting TCU. Still, some fixtures remain up in the air, teasing the potential for high-profile, nationally televised showdowns on Thursday or Friday nights. The raucous conference play is slated to wrap up Thanksgiving weekend with an eight-game bonanza, closing out the regular season with a whole new brand of holiday football fever.
