Burning Questions Before Reveal Of 2025 BYU Football Schedule
Feb 3, 2025, 12:01 PM
PROVO, Utah – We will see how the 2025 BYU football schedule stacks up this week.
The Big 12 Conference will announce the schedule on Tuesday, February 4, at 9 a.m. (MST).
How does Tuesday at 11am ET sound?
🏈📆 #Big12FB
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) January 31, 2025
BYU football has five road games in their nine-game league schedule in 2025. That means they will only have four home games in the Big 12 slate.
BYU football: Big 12 opponents in 2025
- TCU Horned Frogs
- UCF Knights
- Utah Utes
- West Virginia Mountaineers
- at Arizona Wildcats
- at Cincinnati Bearcats
- at Colorado Buffaloes
- at Iowa State Cyclones
- at Texas Tech Red Raiders
Where will the bye weeks land?
We already know which opponents BYU will avoid in 2025. Those teams are Arizona State, Baylor, Kansas State, Kansas, Houston, and Oklahoma State. The next question coaches typically ask when seeing the schedule is, where do the bye weeks land?
Like 2024, there will be two bye weeks during the 2025 season.
The Big 12 typically schedules a bye after a road game that is two time zones away. So, wherever BYU’s road trip to Cincinnati lands, that would be a logical spot for a bye week.
Last season, the Big 12 scheduled BYU’s trip to UCF for the end of October. The Cougars then had a bye before the final stretch run of the regular season.
BYU’s non-conference schedule includes a break between the home game against Stanford on September 6 and a cross-country trip to East Carolina on September 20. A bye in week three wouldn’t be ideal.
Will BYU football play a Big 12 game in week three?
As noted above, BYU’s 2025 schedule has an open date for the weekend of September 13. Will the Big 12 schedule a conference game involving BYU in that spot?
The Big 12 has scheduled week three conference openers for the past two seasons (TCU/Houston, 2023 & UCF/TCU, 2024). So, there are some examples of the Big 12 doing this.
The common thread in those previous week three Big 12 lid-lifters is TCU. Texas Christian University travels to Provo this season.
The only issue with lining up TCU in Provo in that spot is that half of BYU’s home schedule would already be complete, with nine games remaining.
The Colorado Buffaloes are the other 2025 opponent with a week three opening. BYU is scheduled to travel to Boulder next season.
It could be billed as an Alamo Bowl rematch, as BYU crushed the Buffs 36-14 in San Antonio last season. With how big of a television draw the Buffs are, I’m sure that could deliver a strong early-season audience.
How many weeknight games will BYU football play?
BYU has never opposed weeknight football games. The Cougars have a history of playing them, dating back to the 1970s.
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said last year in Las Vegas that the league was exploring new TV windows with ESPN and FOX.
FOX had a weekly Friday night game with a few Big 12 matchups during the 2024 season.
The Big 12 has accommodated BYU’s desire to play on a weeknight before General Conference weekend for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s the weekend of October 4 in the 2025 BYU football schedule. So, that would be a natural spot to look at for a potential weeknight matchup.
RELATED: Way-Too-Early Big 12 Football Power Rankings for the 2025 season
Last year, BYU had a bye during General Conference weekend. They played in two Friday night games; one was a non-conference game at SMU under the ACC TV deal, and the other weeknight game was against Oklahoma State in the middle of the season.
Where does the Big 12 schedule the BYU/Utah rivalry game?
The big question for many fans in Utah is where the BYU/Utah game will appear on the schedule.
Last year, the Big 12 took some heat for placing the game on an outside-the-box date of November 9. That was three weeks earlier than the final weekend of the regular season.
While it was strange to see the game early, it delivered a strong late-night audience (2 million viewers). BYU’s undefeated record and ranking of No. 9 in the College Football Playoff helped the cause.
Despite the late kickoff time, that date had some definite positives. Will the Big 12 hold the game in a similar spot again, or will they return to the traditional last week of the regular season?
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.
