The Big 12 dropped its 2026 football schedule on Wednesday, and while there weren’t any headline-grabbing surprises, there’s still plenty to unpack. The matchups largely followed the matrix laid out back in 2023, so most of the key games were already known. But one scheduling tweak stood out-and it could have a ripple effect across the college football landscape.
Let’s start with what we already expected. Texas Tech won’t face Utah.
Notre Dame is making a trip to Provo to take on BYU, stepping in after the Irish’s long-standing rivalry with USC was put on pause. TCU is heading across the Atlantic to open the season against North Carolina in Dublin during Week 0, while Arizona State and Kansas will square off in London in Week 3.
But the most noteworthy change? The Big 12 Championship Game is moving from its traditional Saturday morning slot (9 a.m.
Pacific) to Friday night, December 4. It's a strategic shift, not a permanent one-the conference plans to alternate between Friday and Saturday in future years-but it’s a clear signal of where the Big 12 is headed.
This isn’t uncharted territory. The Pac-12 used to play its title game on Fridays to avoid being overshadowed by the Big Ten and SEC on Saturday. Now, the Big 12 is doing something similar, and the reasoning is simple: visibility.
Commissioner Brett Yormark has made it clear-this conference is chasing national relevance. “My job is to create more value, to amplify the schools in an effort to make them more national,” he said recently. That means finding windows where the Big 12 can own the spotlight instead of getting buried beneath the sport’s traditional powerhouses.
And it’s not just about one night in December. The Big 12 has been leaning into creative scheduling and media exposure for a while now.
Yormark pushed to bring ESPN’s College GameDay back to a Big 12 campus after years of absence. He also struck sub-licensing deals to put Big 12 football and basketball games on TNT, expanding the league’s reach beyond the usual college sports channels.
Then there’s the international expansion. Games in Dublin and London aren’t just about novelty-they’re about planting flags in new markets and giving the Big 12 a global footprint.
Still, the conference is navigating a tougher road without its biggest draw. Colorado was a ratings juggernaut in 2024 thanks to Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and Coach Prime.
But with those stars now in the NFL, the Buffaloes took a step back both on the field and in the TV ratings. In 2024, Colorado games hit 3 million viewers 10 times.
In 2025? Just once.
That drop-off means the Big 12 has to be even more intentional about how it builds its schedule. Take Arizona-BYU in Week 2-normally a nonconference-heavy week.
That matchup is being positioned to grab a prime viewership window. Same goes for Houston-Texas Tech in Week 3.
Expect more of that. Several conference games will be shifted to Friday nights this season, with those changes coming later this spring. It’s all part of a broader strategy to avoid competing head-to-head with the Big Ten and SEC and instead carve out unique viewing windows.
That approach also explains why the Big 12 spread its rivalry games across the back half of the season instead of stacking them all on Thanksgiving weekend. Baylor-TCU and Kansas-Kansas State are set for Week 7.
The BYU-Utah showdown lands in Week 10. The idea?
Don’t cannibalize your own product. If you pile all your marquee games into one weekend, you’re not just fighting other conferences-you’re fighting yourself.
Once the Friday night games are locked in, the Big 12’s 2026 schedule is going to look very different from what we’re used to seeing in the Big Ten or SEC. And that’s the point. This isn’t about tradition-it’s about standing out.
Now, let’s zoom in on some of the finer details from the 2026 slate:
Texas Tech’s Tough Break
The defending Big 12 champs won’t face BYU or Utah-last year’s second- and third-place finishers. That’s not a snub; it’s a byproduct of the scheduling matrix built in 2023, before Texas Tech rose to the top.
Some matchups were locked in for four-year cycles, others for three. The 2026 season wraps up the three-year cycle, and sources suggest it might be time for a reset after this year.
Bye Weeks and a Compressed Calendar
Labor Day falls on September 7 this year-the latest it can possibly land. That means the regular season spans just 13 weeks, and every team gets only one bye week. TCU is the lone exception, playing in Week 0 in Dublin.
Most Big 12 teams will be done with their byes by mid-October, but Houston and West Virginia are the outliers-they get their breaks on October 31.
Rest Disparity
Eight teams will hit the road to face opponents coming off a bye week. That includes BYU, which hosts Notre Dame in Week 7 before heading to UCF-a team that will have had two full weeks to prepare.
Nine teams will also face back-to-back conference road games with no break in between. That’s a tough ask in any conference, let alone one that stretches from Arizona to West Virginia.
The Roughest Roads
Four teams-Baylor, Houston, Kansas, and Utah-get hit with both of those challenges: back-to-back conference road trips and matchups against opponents coming off a bye.
On the flip side, four teams avoid both scenarios entirely: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa State, and TCU.
But no one has it rougher than UCF. The Knights go on the road to face Houston in Week 5, then turn around and head to Stillwater to play Oklahoma State in Week 6.
The Cowboys? They’ll be coming off a 13-day break.
The Big 12’s 2026 schedule might not have delivered fireworks on announcement day, but make no mistake-there’s strategy behind every move. From Friday night lights to global games, this is a conference that’s not just keeping up with college football’s power players-it’s finding new ways to stay in the conversation.