![]() STILLWATER - With two Big 12 baseball series remaining, Oklahoma State remains in a strong position. Perhaps the conference will reconsider the potential rivalry in 2024.View Gallery: Photos: Oklahoma State Cowboys vs OU Sooners in Bedlam baseball With the fact that they have had recent, entertaining matchups, along with the “private religious school” label, this seems like a no-brainer. But it does not appear that the Bears and Cougars are part of a “protected” rivalry by the conference. That doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be rivals. It feels so right, except that the Big 12 Conference felt that BYU and Baylor needed a break from each other and didn’t schedule a game in 2023. Fans have already exchanged pleasantries at both home stadiums. Baylor has been one of the most gracious and welcoming programs towards BYU joining the conference. In this case, it almost feels like the opposite. Most of the time, rivalries are born in bad blood. The crowd stormed the field as they defeated their future conference foe. The 2022 version was an epic, double-overtime clash that saw BYU knock off then No. The Horned Frogs won the Big 12 in 2014 and have won two New Year’s Six Bowls, including last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal.īaylor and BYU have met two years in a row already. TCU stands as the gold standard for expansion members having success in their new, tougher conference. The reunion with TCU for a third different conference is one of the more interesting parts of BYU heading into the Big 12. Plus, TCU, like BYU, is a private school affiliated with Christianity. The two programs are set to reunite on the gridiron on October 14 in Fort Worth. ![]() TCU owns a 6-5 advantage in 11 matchups to this point. BYU fans would like to forget the 51-50 heartbreaking loss in overtime to TCU in 2005. The Horned Frogs and Cougars were conference mates in the WAC and Mountain West from 1996-1998, and then 2005-2010. ![]() But, like Oklahoma State, this doesn’t feel natural. These two squads also have met up somewhat recently, with the Cougars winning both matchups in 20.Ĭincinnati brings some gravitas, just two seasons removed from a berth to the College Football Playoff. It will be a historic night and Cincinnati will be on the opposite sideline. While Houston is technically the closest fellow newcomer geographically, the Cougars and Bearcats are slated to kick off in BYU’s first ever Big 12 Conference home game. It would make sense if the conference wanted to pin two newbies against each other in a rivalry, much like the PAC-12 did with Utah and Colorado. Perhaps we are reading too much into the Big 12 slating these two programs as the last weekend of the regular season. Oklahoma State is certainly a solid program, as they have seven 10-plus win seasons in the last 13 years, including a New Year’s Six Bowl win in 2021. Both matchups came in a bowl game, with the first, in 1974, coming in the Fiesta Bowl. These two teams have a limited history, and an ancient one. The Pokes have been part of the Big 12 since its inception in 1996. Does the Big 12 want Oklahoma State to pick up BYU as their new rival with the departure of the Sooners after next year? Usually, those games are reserved for bitter rivals. This one might seem strange, but the Big 12 Conference felt like the matchup between the Cougars and Cowboys merited the final week of the regular season, Thanksgiving weekend. It has always been an easy answer, until now. With no Utah in the Big 12 (yet), and neither Boise State nor Utah State, BYU needs an in-conference rival. BYU, along with UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati, will play their first Big 12 conference slate beginning September 2023. The first football schedule of this new, exciting era was released earlier this year, after much anticipation. BYU, and all of their fans, anxiously await the official start of the Big 12 era of Brigham Young University athletics, which begins July 1, less than two months from now.
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