Sports
Big 12 reveals 16-team football slate through ’27
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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
A new era began in the Big 12 on Wednesday with the unveiling of the 2024-2027 conference football matchups for its 16 teams.
Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah arrive in the wake of the Pac-12’s demise, joining 2023 arrivals BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.
Gone to the SEC are Texas and Oklahoma, two cornerstones of the original Big 12 that formed in 1994 and formally began in 1996.
The Big 12 said this schedule, featuring nine conference games, prioritizes geography, historic matchups and rivalries as well as competitive balance. Each team will play every other at least once at home and away — some over three seasons, others in all four.
Matchups in 2024 that were played in 2023 will not repeat at the same site.
The Big 12 joins the Big Ten in continuing to play nine conference games. The SEC and ACC both have adopted an eight-game league schedule for 2024.
The schedule brings new annual rivalries, an issue with the departure of Texas-OU, the league’s marquee matchup, while trying to make geographic sense — a challenge in a league that now spans the country.
Utah’s arrival means the Big 12 reignites a heated rivalry with BYU, marking the first time since 2010 that it’s a conference matchup for a game that has been played 101 times, last in 2021 as an early season matchup.
Arizona and Arizona State also import their Territorial Cup rivalry that dates to 1899, with those marking the only recurring games on each team’s league schedule for all four years of this slate.
Game dates will be announced by the Big 12 at a later date. Utah’s 2024 game against Baylor, which was previously scheduled, will remain a nonconference matchup on Sept. 9.
The Big 12 will compete as a 16-team conference for the first time in 2024. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah will become members in the summer of 2024 joining Baylor, BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.
Colorado, the Big 12’s prodigal son, was a charter member of the original league before helping to set off the first round of the league’s realignment, when the Buffaloes departed for the Pac-12 following the 2010 season.