Five Takeaways From BYU Football’s Future Schedule Moves
Sep 25, 2024, 2:04 PM | Updated: 2:04 pm
BYU football lined up many games for its future schedules. (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – BYU football officially announced many of its future schedule moves as they settle into life as a Big 12 member.
The Cougars had to reshuffle many nonconference matchups due to Utah and Arizona joining the Big 12 Conference. That forced BYU to add many new games and reshuffle the deck.
NEW SERIES‼️ pic.twitter.com/WGsDIi531i
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) September 25, 2024
The changes have BYU’s schedules for 2025, 2026, and 2027 locked in with 12 games.
BYU’s 2028 and 2029 schedules only need one more nonconference matchup, which, based on trends, will likely be FCS opponents.
Here are five takeaways from BYU’s future schedule moves.
Seven Home Games for the 2026 Season
Getting seven home games is an important development for BYU as they settle into life in the Big 12 Conference. For the 2026 season, they will have seven games at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
History shows that BYU will have a good season when they have seven home games.
Since LaVell Edwards Stadium expanded in 1982, the Cougars have had three years with seven home games and all three of those years (1996, 2011, 2020) resulted in double-digit win seasons.
BYU’s 2026 home games include Utah Tech (Sept. 5) and Cal (Sept. 12), followed by Big 12 matchups against Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Iowa State, and Cincinnati.
If the five Big 12 home game trends continue in 2028 and 2030, BYU has set itself up with future schedules to have seven home games in those slates.
Nonconference games on the West Coast
BYU has a strong following of fans in California and along the West Coast. However, since moving to the Big 12, those appearances on the West Coast are few and far between.
Adding a pair of series with Cal and Oregon State gives BYU fans out west some nonconference games to look forward to in the near future.
No games against Big Ten or SEC programs until 2032
With BYU’s series against Ole Miss for the 2028 and 2029 seasons being canceled, BYU’s next matchup against an opponent from the Big Ten or SEC is in 2032 when the Cougars host Michigan State. That game was initially scheduled for the 2020 season but was rescheduled due to the COVID pandemic.
The same goes for future matchups against the SEC. BYU’s next matchup against an SEC program is in 2035 when they will host Missouri. That Missouri matchup, like the Michigan State game, is a byproduct of the 2020 pandemic-stricken season.
Lining up SEC programs will be tougher as the league likely moves to a nine-game conference schedule in the future. Then you add that many of those SEC programs have rivals in the ACC; it’s hard to picture many opportunities for BYU or Big 12 programs, in general, to get cracks at members in that league.
Return game from Navy
When BYU and Navy announced a game to kick off the 2020 season, the announcement included that the Midshipmen would make a return trip to Provo without a year announced. Well, now we have a year for when Navy will travel to Provo, the 2031 season.
BYU has never hosted Navy in Provo. The Cougars have played in Annapolis twice and faced the Midshipmen in the 1978 Holiday Bowl.
Landing games against the military academies are challenging as they have the Commander In Chief Trophy games, and in the case of Navy, they also play Notre Dame annually.
To highlight the challenges of getting the military academy programs, BYU’s future series against Army West Point has been canceled.
Maintaining commitments with Group of Six teams from pre-Big 12 era series
BYU has games against Group of Six teams in place on future nonconference schedules against East Carolina, Northern Illinois, South Florida, and Troy.
All of those opponents faced BYU when they were an Independent program.
Next year, BYU will travel cross-country to Greenville, North Carolina, to face East Carolina. In 2030, BYU will travel to DeKalb, Illinois, to play Northern Illinois. Initially, that road game was going to be played in an MLS stadium in 2020.
Northern Illinois beat BYU 7-6 in Provo in 2018, a win that was added to NIU’s “Boneyard.”
BYU will travel to Troy to face the Trojans in 2035. This is the second of a two-game series that began in the 2020 season.
BYU will host the South Florida Bulls in 2034 instead of the 2026 season. That was pushed back to accommodate the addition of the Cal series.
This shows that BYU will fulfill commitments on the series. These games could have been canceled, as BYU had a scheduling loophole in its contracts by going to the Big 12. Instead, BYU will honor the commitments even if it’s games on the road against Group of Six teams.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
