For the third straight season, the Battle for the Beehive State - BYU vs. Utah - is landing in the middle of the college football calendar rather than its traditional season-ending slot. The Big 12 released its 2026 schedule on Wednesday, and once again, the Cougars and Utes will square off in early November, this time on Saturday, Nov. 7, in Salt Lake City.
It’s a familiar twist in this new Big 12 chapter for the longtime rivals. In 2024, the first year both teams were members of the conference, the game was played on Nov.
- The following season, it shifted slightly earlier to Oct. 18 in Provo.
Now, in 2026, the matchup stays in that midseason window - and fans are still getting used to it.
If you followed this rivalry during the Mountain West era, you know the final weekend of the regular season used to be sacred ground for BYU-Utah. From 1999 to 2010, the two teams closed out their schedules against each other every year except 2001 and 2007. The late-November drama became part of the lore - cold weather, high stakes, and bragging rights on the line to end the season.
So when Utah joined the Big 12 ahead of the 2024 campaign, many assumed the tradition would resume. Instead, the conference has opted for a different approach - spreading rivalry games throughout the season rather than stacking them all on the final weekend.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark addressed the scheduling philosophy during the 2024 media days, emphasizing the importance of rivalries across the conference - not just BYU-Utah, but also Arizona-Arizona State, Kansas-Kansas State, and Baylor-TCU. He explained that the league’s scheduling committee, led by VP of football Scott Draper, made a strategic decision to scatter marquee matchups throughout November to maintain fan engagement over multiple weeks.
“We don’t necessarily have a rivalry week,” Yormark said at the time. “We spread them around… We want to maintain those rivalries. And I think we did.”
Still, it’s hard to ignore the optics: while BYU and Utah are meeting in early November, four other Big 12 rivalries - Arizona/Arizona State, Kansas State/Iowa State, Baylor/Houston, and TCU/Texas Tech - are all slated for the final weekend of the regular season in 2026.
So why not save BYU-Utah for the finale?
One likely reason is television. The Big 12 is clearly trying to carve out space for its biggest games in a crowded national landscape.
In 2024, the BYU-Utah game pulled in 2.1 million viewers on ESPN - the network’s third-highest late-night college football rating that year. That’s a solid number, suggesting that placing the rivalry in a standalone window can pay off in exposure.
But in 2025, despite both teams being ranked in the top 15, the game drew slightly fewer viewers - 1.97 million on Fox. For comparison, BYU’s late-November road game at Cincinnati, airing at the same time slot, brought in 2.6 million viewers. That suggests the rivalry might not always pop nationally the way the Big 12 hopes - especially if it’s not positioned with the season-long buildup fans are used to.
And that’s the crux of the debate. From a marketing standpoint, there’s logic in giving BYU-Utah its own spotlight.
But from a football and cultural perspective - particularly in the state of Utah - this game is the main event. In 2025, the stakes couldn’t have been higher: the winner punched its ticket to the Big 12 championship game.
That’s the kind of drama that feels tailor-made for a season finale.
Instead, the game is tucked into the middle of the stretch run, still significant, but perhaps missing that crescendo moment that makes college football rivalries so unforgettable.
For now, fans will circle Nov. 7 and brace for another chapter in a rivalry that’s shown no signs of cooling - even if the calendar says it’s not the end just yet.