BYU Football: Biggest Takeaways From 2025 Schedule

The 2025 BYU football schedule has been released and for the second straight season, the Cougars will face 10 power-conference opponents in its 12-game regular season.

BYU’s schedule includes six home games, beginning with a season opener against Portland State and then hosting Stanford the week after at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Other featured home games include the first-ever trip to Provo by the West Virginia Mountaineers in a Friday-night matchup and the season’s annual homecoming game, this time against in-state rival Utah. The Cougars also host TCU and UCF to round out the home schedule.

The schedule also features six road contests and two bye weeks for the second consecutive year. The Cougars play on the road at East Carolina, Colorado, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Arizona and Cincinnati.

With the 16-team league, there’s always going to be some new faces on the schedule and this year is no different as the Cougars will take on five teams — West Virginia, Iowa State, Texas Tech, TCU and Cincinnati — that they didn’t face last year.

Overall, the Cougars will face six teams that played in a bowl game in 2024, including 11-game winner Iowa State, who edged out BYU for a place in conference championship game via tiebreaker rules last season. Along with the Cyclones, BYU’s 2025 opponents coming off of bowl appearances include TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia, East Carolina, TCU and Colorado — who the Cougars crushed in the Alamo Bowl.

BYU, which went 11-2 overall and 7-2 in Big 12 play last year, looks to carry that momentum over this year with its Top 15 ranking.

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BYU 2025 Schedule — The Good And The Bad

Let’s start with the good news.

The Cougars will avoid playing Arizona State, Baylor, Kansas State, Kansas, Houston and Oklahoma State. While Houston, Oklahoma State and Kansas aren’t expected to be contenders, the fact that BYU avoids the Sun Devils, Bears, and Wildcats is a huge benefit as they are expected to be preseason Big 12 contenders.

Sam Leavitt is the top QB in the Big 12 and will be one of the top QBs in the nation this year. Yes, ASU loses Cam Skattabo, but the talent is there to make another Big 12 championship run. Baylor, which returns a bunch of starters, took BYU down to the wire and was one of the hottest teams in the Big 12 the last half of the season. Kansas State is always a contender and will bring back a number of starters too. Also, don’t count out Kansas which reloaded with a bunch of high-profile transfers. The Jayhawks were one of only two teams to beat BYU last year.

BYU’s first six games is very manageable and I wouldn’t be surprised to see BYU 6-0 heading into the Holy War Showdown against Utah. However, the back half of the schedule — starting with Utah — is where things get tricky. More on that below.

As far as games and travel go, the calendar is very balanced as the Cougars play two home games and two road games each month. Last year, the schedule wasn’t as balanced as the Cougars played three road games and just one home game in September.

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Now for the bad news.

The Cougars will face Utah, Iowa State, and Texas Tech over a 3-game stretch. As of now, all three of those teams should be contenders and two of those games are on the road. The good news is that BYU does get TCU at home as the Cougars have been crushed in Fort Worth the last several times. BYU will also look to end a 5-game losing streak against the Horned Frogs. Last but not least, the Cougars finish up with Cincinnati and UCF, which both will likely be at the bottom of the conference.

So while the Cougars have one of the toughest 3-game stretches in all of Big 12 play, the rest of the schedule sets up nicely, and the Cougars will have a great shot at winning 10+ games again.

The only downside to playing what is expected to be a number of teams at the bottom of the conference (UCF, Cincinnati, Arizona), is that conference tiebreakers could be another thorn in BYU’s side. The Cougars lost the fourth tiebreaker against Iowa State due to the combined winning percentage in conference games of conference opponents. Oklahoma State went 0-9 in Big 12 play, dragging down BYU and lifting Iowa State up since the Cyclones didn’t face the Cowboys.

Luckily BYU and Iowa State will play each other this year so both teams can settle it out on the field this time. But with Kansas State, Baylor, and Arizona State likely in the mix, the Cougars won’t have a chance for head-to-head wins against them and as Cougar fans know, they don’t want their season coming down to a coin flip.

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BYU — First-Time Occurrences + Bye Weeks

Once again, BYU will have two bye weeks which will be nice when playing against 10 P4 programs. The first bye week is during the third week, and the next one is during the 10th week. While the spacing certainly could have been better, it’s not that bad, especially considering the second bye week is in the middle of the Iowa State and Texas Tech games. While the 3-game stretch is brutal, at least there is a bye week for additional preparation and time to recover from injuries.

With the expanded 16-team league, it also brings the opportunity for history as BYU will host West Virginia at LaVell Edwards Stadium for the first time in program history. It will be a Friday night showdown due to General Conference weekend.

On the flip side, BYU will play at Jack Trice Stadium for the first time. While the Cougars have played in Ames against Iowa State in 1969 and 1974, Jack Trice Stadium wasn’t opened until 1975.

In addition, BYU will play at Jones AT&T Stadium for the first time. The Cougars have played in Lubbock once, which was way back in 1940, before the new stadium was built.

BYU’s 2025 conference schedule is a mixed bag, but overall, it’s more positive than negative. Yes, the Cougars have one of the toughest 3-game stretches in Big 12 play, but at least they have a bye during that time to help break it up.

The rest of the games should be very winnable, but the downside to that is that the Cougars could lose another tiebreaker scenario since they’ll likely be playing a number of teams that will finish near the bottom of the conference. But like what we saw this past year, the projected bottom dweller ended up being the conference champion so who knows how it will all shake out. That’s why you play the games!

The Big 12 Championship game is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 6 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

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