Week 1 brings a short list of Big 12 games worth circling, and the early slate opens with a pair of matchups that should tell us a little something about how these teams are changing. Colorado and Baylor are both stepping into rematches against Power Four opponents, while Cincinnati gets a chance to show whether it can keep building after a rocky finish to 2025.
Colorado’s trip to Georgia Tech on Thursday night is the kind of game that can swing on one position group. The Yellowjackets beat the Buffaloes 27-20 in Boulder last season, and now they get the rematch at home on September 3rd at 7:00 PM CT.
Both teams are bringing in new quarterbacks, with Colorado turning to Julian Lewis and Georgia Tech replacing Haynes King with former Indiana backup Alberto Mendoza. Lewis, who is from the Atlanta, Georgia area and allegedly considered transferring to Georgia Tech in January, stayed put and now has a chance to lead Colorado to a road win.
Georgia Tech is the touchdown favorite, and there’s a clear reason for that, but Colorado has enough upside to make this interesting. The game could come down to whether the Buffaloes can slow down veteran running back Justice Haynes. Even so, a Colorado cover - or even an outright win - wouldn’t be a shock.
Saturday’s Baylor-Auburn matchup in Atlanta has a similar feel, just with a little more offensive firepower baked in. Auburn beat Baylor 38-24 in Waco last year, and this time the game shifts to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 5th at 2:30 PM CT. The neutral site setting still figures to feel a lot like home for Auburn in the middle of SEC country.
Both teams are breaking in new quarterbacks here as well. Baylor brings in former Florida quarterback DJ Lagway, while Auburn goes with South Florida transfer Byrum Brown.
Brown is the only quarterback in the NCAA to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards last season, and he’s one of 12 quarterbacks to do that all-time. That kind of profile makes this one look like a shootout, and the over on total points stands out.
The continuity between Auburn head coach Alex Golesh and Brown, who both came over from USF, is enough to tilt the pick toward Auburn as a touchdown favorite.
Prediction: Auburn -7
Then there’s Cincinnati, which gets Boston College at 2:30 PM CT on Saturday in a game that should give the Bearcats a chance to start with control. Cincinnati’s 2025 season was a strange one: a neutral-site loss to Nebraska, then seven straight wins, then a five-game skid to finish it off, including a bowl loss to Navy. Boston College, meanwhile, came in at 2-10 and is trying to completely reset.
The line is only a touchdown, but it’s tough to see Boston College going on the road and pulling this off against a Cincinnati team that has improved in each of its last three seasons. The Bearcats do have to replace Brenden Sorsby at quarterback, but JC French IV is ready to take over after transferring from Georgia Southern.
He’s a dual-threat quarterback, and Cincinnati’s offense should stay aggressive. The defense still has some questions, but against Boston College, the Bearcats should have enough scoring to cover for it.
Taken together, Week 1 looks like a strong opening stretch for the league. Even if Colorado and Baylor come up short in the bigger matchups, the rest of the Big 12 should pile up wins and put the conference in position for a 13-2 week.
In Other News...
Cincinnati Opens With A Test Scott Satterfield Cannot Afford To Flunk
Before the first snap of the season, Cincinnati already has a revealing kind of early test on its hands. Scott Satterfield spent the offseason trying to steady a roster that needed it, while also bringing along new quarterback JC French IV, and the opener against Boston College offers a quick read on how far that work has gone. Both programs are coming off disappointing years, which makes this matchup less about pageantry and more about who handled the reset better.
Bill OBrien has been doing his own rebuilding work at Boston College, where a revamped defense and new quarterback Mason McKenzie will be part of the opening-week equation. For the Bearcats, the bigger question is whether the offseason emphasis on stability shows up fast enough to matter. Openers can be messy, but this one feels especially important for a Cincinnati team that cannot afford to start with another round of uncertainty. [Read more 🡒]
Bearcats Fans Now Have A New Brendan Sorsby Debate To Watch
A new documentary is set to put Brendan Sorsby back in the spotlight, and Bearcats fans who have been tracking his journey now have another angle to chew on. The four-part Paramount+ series, titled The Program, follows the fallout from Sorsbys gambling scandal at Texas Tech and covers the programs response through the offseason, with coach Joey McGuire, quarterback Will Hammond and other Red Raiders figures among those featured.
The film tracks the story from January to August and includes Sorsbys first public comments on the matter, along with the teams attempts to move forward amid the NCAA and Big 12 turbulence surrounding the case. It also revisits the decision for Sorsby to step away from the team and enter gambling rehab, leaving Cincinnati observers with fresh context on a familiar name and a few new questions about how the episode will be remembered. [Read more 🡒]
Cincinnati Gambling Scrutiny Put One Bearcats Decision Under The Microscope
The NCAAs review of the Cincinnati case is over, and the school came out clean after questions swirled around Brendan Sorsbys gambling activity. Sorsby had already been ruled ineligible by the NCAA before a Texas judges injunction put him back on the field, but the broader inquiry centered on whether the Bearcats themselves handled the matter properly once the Big 12 flagged it.
Cincinnati said it responded by taking steps to educate Sorsby on gambling rules, and the NCAA ultimately found no violations by the university. The resolution closes one significant front in a situation that had threatened to linger over the program, even if the focus on Sorsby himself is not entirely gone. [Read more 🡒]