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Dave Wilson, ESPN Staff Writer
The Big 12’s new-look, 16-team schedule was announced Tuesday with the integration of Arizona, Arizona State and Utah into the league as well as the return of Colorado.
The Big 12 said in November that this schedule, featuring nine conference games, prioritizes geography, historical matchups and rivalries. The Big 12 joins the Big Ten in continuing to play nine conference games. The SEC and ACC have adopted an eight-game league schedule for 2024.
BYU will travel to Utah on Nov. 9, the first time since 2010 that a rivalry that has been played 101 times will be a conference game. The two last met in 2021.
The official 2⃣0⃣2⃣4⃣ Big 12 football schedule 🗓️ pic.twitter.com/9NiF0hJsEy
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) January 30, 2024
Arizona will host Arizona State on Nov. 30 for the Territorial Cup, a rivalry since 1899, and Baylor will play at Houston on Nov. 23 for the first time since 1995, when they were both Southwest Conference members. The Sunflower Showdown between Kansas and Kansas State will be Oct. 26.
The first conference matchup will be in Fort Worth on Sept. 14 when UCF visits TCU, kicking off the 29th season of the league, but the first without Texas or Oklahoma. Although the schedule has been decided for weeks, it have yet to be determined for several games whether they’ll be played Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Two games have been confirmed for the Friday after Thanksgiving: Oklahoma State at Colorado and Utah at UCF. Two games featuring new conference opponents — Baylor at Utah on Sept. 7 and Arizona at Kansas State on the weekend of Sept. 14 — are considered nonconference matchups because they were previously scheduled.
Television selections for the first three weeks of the season will be made by ESPN and Fox this summer.
The league’s championship will be Dec. 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Kansas will play all six of its home games in the Kansas City area as renovations continue at the team’s on-campus facility, David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, and the surrounding Gateway District. The Jayhawks will play Lindenwood and UNLV at Children’s Mercy Park, home to Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City franchise. Kansas will host all four of its Big 12 opponents — TCU, Houston, Iowa State and Colorado — at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The school is providing season-ticket packages for all six games, as well as a four-game package for the games at Arrowhead Stadium. The student ticket allotment at Children’s Mercy Park will be similar to what Kansas has at Memorial Stadium and could be larger for the games at Arrowhead.
“While we had hoped to play these games in Lawrence, the move to alternate venues is needed to ensure that our fans, student-athletes and all constituents have the best possible gameday experience and that we stay on schedule to complete construction for the 2025 season,” Kansas chancellor Douglas Girod said in a statement. “We recognize this move is not ideal for some members of the Lawrence community, and we hope they will understand this is a necessary one-year move to ensure the Gateway District can begin benefitting Lawrence as soon as possible in 2025.”
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg contributed to this report.