Five Takeaways from BYU's 2024 Football Schedule

The full Big 12 schedule was released on Tuesday. Here are x takeaways from BYU's 2024 schedule.

Official BYU Football Schedule For 2024 Has Been Released

1. Swing and a Miss for BYU-Utah

Most people assumed BYU-Utah would be played on the last week of the season. That assumption was incorrect. BYU and Utah will played on November 9th instead. Both teams will have a bye to prepare for this game.

There are upsides to this choice. Most notably, there will be less competition for TV viewership. Adding bye weeks for both teams before the game is a fun wrinkle as well - there will be a lot of buildup to this game on both sides.

However, this feels like a swing and a miss for a Big 12 conference that lacks tradition. The BYU-Utah game is one of the most historic games in the conference, and it's best when played at the end of the season. Instead, Utah will play UCF to wrap up the regular season and BYU will play Houston.

Arizona-Arizona State will be played on Thanksgiving weekend. Why not BYU-Utah? Sometimes the most obvious choice is the right choice. In the opinion of this author, there was some overthinking that contributed to this decision. BYU-Utah brings a lot of built-in tradition. The conference should lean into that tradition as much as possible.

2. Fun Start to Conference Play

BYU will kick off its conference schedule with a home game against Kansas State. In terms of conference openers, that's about as entertaining as it gets for BYU fans. That game will very likely be a sellout. This will be the first game between BYU and Kansas State since the Cotton Bowl.

3. You Can't Play Nice with the Non-Conference Schedule Anymore

BYU will travel to SMU and Wyoming in the non-conference schedule. This is a decision that BYU and director of athletics Tom Holmoe might regret. Winning in Texas at SMU will be a tall task. SMU attracts a lot of talent in the transfer portal and they're surrounded by some of the best high school talent in the country. BYU will likely be an underdog in this game.

Then you have Wyoming. Wyoming fans hate BYU and this will be the biggest home game for a Wyoming team that has proven dangerous over the last few years. If BYU is going to make a bowl game in 2024, this is a must-win game. This a trap game.

Winning in the Big 12 is hard. BYU went 3-0 in the non-conference last year and still missed a bowl game. Signing up for not one, but two road tests is a strategy that needs to change in future years.

BYU is now a member of the Power Four - a place they've always wanted to be. Now that BYU is a member of a power conference, it needs to schedule like a power conference team. Teams in power conferences have taken advantage of teams in lesser conferences for decades. P4 teams don't play nice when it comes to scheduling, BYU knows that first hand. Tennessee didn't make its return trip to Provo. Notre Dame didn't play in Provo despite agreeing to a 2-1, playing both games in South Bend, then cancelling the return trip. As an independent, BYU agreed to countless road games with no return trips.

SMU didn't need another home game in 2024. The Mustangs got BYU to go to Texas first even though they will play seven home games in 2024.

BYU owed Wyoming a return trip. BYU had to play nice when it was an independent. That doesn't matter now - BYU has bigger fish to fry. BYU needs to be selfish in the scheduling department.

4. A Special Season Could Happen if BYU Holds Serve at Home

Three of BYU's first four conference games will be played in Provo.

9/21 - vs Kansas State
9/28 - @ Baylor
10/12 - vs Arizona
10/18 - vs Oklahoma State

The lone road game during that stretch will be played at Baylor. If Baylor doesn't make significant improvements in 2024, that could be one of the more winnable games on the schedule. Therefore, if BYU is able to hold serve at home, they will be in the middle of the conference championship race at the end of October.

That won't be easy - Kansas State, Arizona, and Oklahoma State will be three of the top teams in the conference. But a special season is possible if BYU protects its home turf.

5. A More Manageable Conclusion

Last year, BYU played Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to wrap up the regular season. BYU was desperate to win one of those games, and they came extremely close, but Oklahoma and Oklahoma State had more depth and it showed late in those games.

This year, BYU plays Arizona State and Houston at the end of the season. On papre, those two games are more manageable than what BYU faced last season.

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