BYU Football Getting Closer To First Schedule As Big 12 Member
Apr 28, 2022, 11:00 AM
BYU football lines up against the USC Trojans in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)
(Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)
PROVO, Utah – The scheduling dominos continue to fall for BYU football as they inch closer to life in the Big 12.
On Thursday, USC Athletics announced that the third and final game between the Trojans and BYU scheduled for November 25, 2023, is canceled. The move isn’t a surprise as BYU has been working on trimming down its large inventory of games as an FBS Independent.
The BYU-USC game in 2023 is canceled
Instead of having BYU, USC will now play a week zero game against San Jose State next season.
The third game of the #BYU-USC series is officially off in 2023. No more games against the Trojans are on future schedules.#BYUFootball @kslsports pic.twitter.com/iJexSwpCyT
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) April 28, 2022
With USC off the schedule, BYU is now down to four non-conference games as a Power 5 program for its first year. BYU and USC have no more future contests between each other in future schedules. The two programs have split the all-time series 2-2, with BYU winning the previous two meetings in 2019 and 2021.
BYU Football schedule in 2023 is coming together
Those four games include a home opener on September 2nd, 2023, against Tennessee in Provo. A trip to SEC country to Arkansas to face the Razorbacks on September 16, a home date against Southern Utah, and a road trip to Utah State.
Games against Tennessee and Arkansas plus an eight or nine-game Big 12 schedule would ensure that BYU faces at least 10 Power Five opponents in 2023. The most in school history.
BYU moved up the trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas, from an October date to the September 16th spot on the 2023 schedule. That move occurred since the Cougars were invited into the Big 12 Conference.
The next domino to fall for BYU’s 2023 schedule will be how many conference games the Big 12 will play. Members from the new Big 12 Conference will meet in Phoenix next week and are expected to decide those logistics and potential divisions for the 14-team league in 2023.
If the Big 12 goes to a nine-game conference schedule, one of BYU’s non-conference games remaining would need to be dropped. The logical one to drop in that scenario would likely be the in-state rivalry game at Utah State.
Then the finalized Big 12 schedule for the 2023 season is expected to be released in October of this year.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
