SALT LAKE CITY, UT - SEPTEMBER 16: A general view of the game between the Utah Utes and the Weber State Wildcats during the second half of their game at Rice-Eccles Stadium September 16, 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
The breakup of the Pac-12 forced three conferences to revamp their schedule format for the 2024 season and beyond.
The Big Ten was first, unveiling a new matrix earlier this month stocked with marquee matchups for the new West Coast members.
The ACC followed earlier this week with a rotation that impressively limited bicoastal travel for Stanford and Cal.
On Wednesday, the Big 12 went public with a schedule model that perfectly reflects the realities of a conference that welcomes Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah next season.
The matrix covers four seasons (2024-27). Each team will play every other team at least twice. And like the Big Ten, the Big 12 is sticking to a nine-game conference schedule in the new world order. (The ACC and SEC play eight conference games.)
Two fabulous rivalries, Utah vs. Brigham Young and Arizona vs. ASU, have been preserved.
Colorado’s schedule features several antagonists from its previous life in the Big 12.
Excessive travel is limited.
Competitive balance is abundant.
Nothing feels forced.
The revamped conference includes campuses in four time zones. But for the so-called Four Corners schools, there’s an obvious geographic fit with their peers in Texas and throughout the Plains states.
It’s not like Stanford and Cal playing multiple games on the East Coast every season, or USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington schlepping to Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Colorado must make four trips to the Eastern Time Zone over the four-year rotation. But the other Four Corners schools only visit UCF, West Virginia and Cincinnati three times. All other road games are within their group of four or against teams in the Central Time Zone.
That said, the reveal of the Big 12 schedule model didn’t carry the same level of anticipation for the Pac-12 exports because of the dearth of must-see games.
When the Big Ten went public with its matrix, the Hotline immediately checked the frequency with which Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State would visit the West Coast.
Even the ACC matrix carried some intrigue with Clemson and Florida State visiting the Bay Area.
In contrast, the Big 12 will be devoid of bluebloods once Texas and Oklahoma depart for the SEC. The resulting parity creates essential stability in the realignment game and should make for a highly competitive conference race every year, but it leaves precious few circle-the-date matchups.
Because the Big 12 has experienced so much membership turnover, there are only four protected matchups (i.e., played annually) across the entire 16-team conference. Two of them, the Holy War in Utah and the Territorial Cup in Arizona, feature the new members.
But the Big 12 smartly played the hand it was dealt and didn’t force schools without history to lock arms into the future. The marriage of convenience between Utah and Colorado, in place since they joined the Pac-12 in 2011, has wisely been scrapped.
Instead, the 16 schools will experience a balanced schedule rotation that, if we’re being honest, resembles a long list of non-conference games.
Here’s Texas Tech against Utah. There’s Cincinnati against Arizona. And Colorado against Houston.
But that’s fine. Because as college football enters a new era, the Big 12’s advantage lies in the geographic and competitive alignment of its schools — the collective acceptance of its new identity.
The conference is losing its two big-name schools to the SEC and will have eight transplants by the start of next season: The four schools that joined this year (Houston, Brigham Young, UCF and Cincinnati); and the four arriving from the Pac-12.
That turnover isn’t merely reflected in the schedule matrix. It’s the essence of the model. Maximize your strengths; mask your weaknesses; embrace what you are; and don’t over-complicate the situation.
The Four Corners schools didn’t need much. They needed protection for two terrific rivalries and limited travel to the Eastern Time Zone.
They got both.
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Originally published at Jon Wilner