The 2025 Big 12 Football schedule will be released on Tuesday morning, giving fans of all 16 teams a chance to break down what the upcoming season will look like.
It’s not often talked about, but how a schedule pans out—i.e. road trips, bye weeks, and difficult games—often plays a major factor in what a team’s overall record looks like at the end of the year.
Could Tuesday’s schedule reveal paint a picture of who is most likely to make it out of the Big 12 as a College Football Playoff contender? Will the league set up its “top contenders” for success? Here are a few of the biggest things to watch for.
Is There a Dedicated Rivalry Week?
One of the best things about college football used to be a dedicated weekend near the end of the regular season when the chaos of rivalry games felt as heavy as possible. Despite the Big 12 losing a lot of the rivalries it used to feature, there are still some incredible ones in the league.
We know that Iowa State and Kansas State will play the first game of the year, so Farmaggeddon is already spoken for, but there are still games like Utah-BYU, TCU-Baylor, Arizona State-Arizona, and Kansas State-Kansas. All of those games could have major Big 12 implications next year, and having a weekend set aside to celebrate the rivalries would be pretty cool.
Is It a Backloaded Schedule?
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Big 12 did a brilliant job in setting up the race last season, as the standings literally came down to the very last game of conference play. After a year of seeing what the conference hierarchy might look like, will we see preseason favorites facing off against each other late in the year?
For example, Iowa State will host Arizona State and BYU, plus they’ll have a road trip to Colorado in 2025. With each of those teams finishing tied atop the Big 12 standings, will the league backload the schedule in hopes of maximizing the intrigue late in the year?
Does the League Lean Towards Fairness or Success?
For years, we watched the SEC protect programs like Alabama and Georgia by keeping them from playing one another, and at the end of the year, they seemed to always end up facing off in the conference title game as Top 5 teams.
Similarly, will the Big 12 provide its projected favorites a favorable path to Dallas by spacing out difficult games with bye weeks or presumed easier opponents. Or, on the other hand, will the league opt to give the tougher teams a stricter path, while attempting to let set the teams that should struggle up with easier paths and longer breaks between tough games?
Meantime, as football fans get set for the big game this weekend, super bowl betting in Vegas is always going to be something to watch across the sports world. And don’t miss that this weekend between the Chiefs and Eagles!
What are the Feature Games Each Week?
Before the 2024 season kicked off, there were Big 12 games in nearly every week of the season that appeared to hold significant weight. For example, Utah’s road trip to Oklahoma State early in the season appeared to many to be a massive bout for both programs. Even though both teams turned out to be duds, the early-season game felt massive as soon as the schedule was released.
Arizona State at Iowa State, Utah at BYU, and Kansas State at Baylor all feel like big games, and where they land on the schedule could play a massive role in what the Big 12 looks like from week to week.
Who Has the Easiest/Hardest Schedule?
Right now, it’s easy to look at the opponents for each Big 12 team and argue who has the easiest or the hardest path to Arlington next season. However, we won’t really know what’s the truth until they’re set in stone.
Take Utah’s schedule for instance. They’ve got games against Baylor, BYU, Arizona State, and Kansas State on the schedule, which looks pretty tough as it stands. But, if the Utes have to go to Baylor, come back and Arizona State, and then travel across the country to play West Virginia before returning to Utah to play BYU, it sounds way tougher.
