BYU Football Will Travel More Miles than Most Big 12 Schools in 2024

Casey Lundquist | Jun 11, 2024

Sep 23, 2023; Lawrence, Kansas, USA; Brigham Young Cougars wide receiver Keelan Marion (17) scores a touchdown during the second half against the Kansas Jayhawks at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports / Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024 version of the Big 12 conference will feature more teams than ever before: 16. It will also capture four time zones. Travel miles will become an important storyline to monitor each year. Especially for the teams on the outer rings of the conference geography, long trips will be commonplace. Travel miles should be considered when evaluating the difficulty of a team's schedule. The longer the road trips, the more difficult the road games will be to win.

On paper, BYU has one of the more difficult schedules on conference in 2024. The travel requirements won't make it any easier either. Kalani Sitake and the BYU football program will travel more miles than most Big 12 teams in 2024. BYU will travel just under 9,600 miles. That ranks fourth narrowly behind Arizona State, Utah, and UCF.

Big 12 2024 Travel Miles

1. Arizona State - 9,848
2. Utah - 9,834
3. UCF - 9,716
4. BYU - 9,582
5. Arizona - 9,312
6. West Virginia - 8,688
7. Baylor - 8,644
8. Houston - 8,540
9. Cincinnati - 7,916
10. TCU - 7,628
11. Kansas State - 7,600
12. Colorado - 7,428
13. Kansas - 7,368
14. Texas Tech - 6,248
15. Iowa State - 5,742
16. Oklahoma State - 4,372

Teams like UCF, BYU, Utah, Arizona, West Virginia and Arizona state will consistently rank near the top of this list. It will be up to their athletic directors to make nonconference travel requirements more feasible during high-travel years.

Schools in the middle of the conference will have that advantage on an annual basis. Oklahoma State, for example, will travel less than half the miles that Arizona State will travel in 2024.

This year, BYU's nonconference schedule will add to the travel burden. BYU's nonconference schedule is unlike other Big 12 schools. After hosting Southern Illinois in the season opener, BYU will travel to SMU and Wyoming for consecutive road games to wrap up the nonconference slate.