BYU and Utah may be headed for one of the biggest games of the season, and it’s coming with an early alarm clock attached.
The Holy War is set for a 10 a.m. Mountain Time kickoff on November 7, with the game slated for either ESPN or ABC.
ESPN will ultimately decide whether BYU-Utah or Texas-Missouri gets the 10 a.m. ABC window.
If both BYU and Utah take care of business this weekend, the matchup is expected to land on ABC as a top 10 showdown.
The timing is what makes the announcement stand out. A game with that kind of profile would normally feel like a prime-time event, but the Big 12 pushed it into a morning slot during a loaded college football weekend.
Notre Dame and Miami are on the schedule that day, and the SEC has Alabama-LSU, Kentucky-Tennessee, Georgia-Ole Miss, and Oklahoma-Florida. Out in the Big Ten, Oregon and Ohio State are also set to meet, even if that matchup doesn’t carry quite the same preseason shine as expected.
The result is that BYU and Utah will get the early window instead of the late spotlight.
It will be the first BYU-Utah kickoff at 10 a.m. since 1996, when BYU beat Utah 37-17. That was also the last time BYU defeated Utah by double digits.
For BYU, the early start could come with a small built-in advantage. Morning games ask a lot of home fans - they have to get moving early, get to the stadium, and bring energy right away.
The Cougars have already been through something similar. In 2023, BYU kicked off at 10 a.m. local time against Oklahoma in Utah.
The Cougars traded punches with the Sooners for much of the day before a Jake Retzlaff pick-six turned the game in Oklahoma’s favor. The atmosphere was strong, but it still didn’t have the same feel as a night game.
Utah is no stranger to this kind of setup either. The Utes played their biggest home game of the 2025 season against Texas Tech, and the Red Raiders eventually pulled away and dominated Utah. That makes this the second straight season Utah has had its biggest home game land in the morning.
In Other News...
BYU Fans Have Every Reason To Be Furious After That Finish
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For BYU fans, the aggravation is only sharpened by how these decisions can tilt a game at the exact point when every snap matters most. Davis cited specific breakdowns, including an incorrect 10-second runoff and a roughing-the-kicker call that stirred debate in a double-overtime game, while a separate Week 1 controversy in the Big Ten involving Western Michigan and Michigan showed the problem is hardly confined to one league. The bigger concern now is not just the individual miss, but how often the sport seems to be asking fans and teams to live with them. [Read more 🡒]
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BYU Suddenly Faces A Secondary Test It Cant Afford To Fail
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Arizona State brings its own uncertainty at quarterback, with Mikey Keene listed as questionable because of a leg injury. If Keene cannot go, freshman Jake Fette is expected to get the start, adding another layer of unpredictability to a matchup that already has plenty of moving parts for BYU to sort through on the back end. [Read more 🡒]