Arizona football's first Big 12 Conference schedule has been set. When it comes to competition level and travel, it's a little more complicated.
The biggest surprise is which team Arizona won't be playing. The Wildcats will play Colorado for the first time since the Buffaloes joined the Pac-12 in 2011. The program will not face last year's Big 12 regular season champion Texas Tech, one of the programs geographically closest to Tucson and Iowa State. . The Wildcats have played his two programs in the Big 12 fairly regularly on non-conference schedules in recent years. They also won't play Oklahoma State this year.
The Big 12 will make up for the loss by hosting a conference tournament. The tournament will be held at Kansas City Current's new facility, CPKC Stadium. In 2024, the tournament will be held from October 30th to November 9th.
The Wildcats will spend the first two weeks of league play on the road. Their Big 12 debut will be on Thursday, Sept. 12, against fellow Pac-12 wanderer Utah. This will be the third year in a row that Arizona will play in Salt Lake City. The Pac-12 has played head-to-head in Utah the past two seasons.
Arizona will travel to Texas in Week 2. They will play at Baylor on Thursday, Sept. 19, then face TCU on Sunday, Sept. 22 in Fort Worth. The Horned Frogs finished third in last year's regular season with a record of 6 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws, but only finished with 10 wins and 6 losses. -3 record overall. It was the Bears' eighth regular season win with a 4-4-2 record. Overall they finished with 9 wins, 7 losses and 3 draws.
This finally brings the Wildcats home. The Bearcats will open their Big 12 home opener against Cincinnati on Thursday, September 26th. The Bearcats finished ninth in the league last year with a conference record of 2-3-5 and an overall record of 4-8-7.
West Virginia will arrive in Tucson for the game on Sunday, September 29th. The Mountaineers finished fifth in the Big 12 last season. They were 5-3-2 in league play and 7-8-4 overall.
Arizona will play its third consecutive home game on Friday, October 4th, when BYU comes to town. The Cougars were the league's best team last year, despite finishing second in the regular season and conference tournament. They were 7-0-3 in the Big 12 with an overall record of 20-3-3. They finished the year in fourth place in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, five spots ahead of regular season champion Texas Tech.
Arizona then leaves town and embarks on a fun road trip through two states. The Wildcats will play UCF on Thursday, October 10th in Orlando. They then need to fly to Houston to play the Cougars on Sunday, Oct. 13. The saving grace for this trip is that both cities have major airports. Multiple airlines offer daily direct flights between his two cities.
The Knights finished in the top half of the league last season. They finished sixth in the Big 12 with a 5-4-1 record. Overall we had 10 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw.
Other Cougars had more trouble making the step up to major conferences. Last season, they finished 12th out of the 14 teams that make up the Big 12. Their conference record was 2 wins, 7 losses, and 1 draw, and their overall record was 8 wins, 8 losses, and 2 draws.
The Wildcats complete their home schedule against Kansas State on Thursday, October 17th and Kansas State on Sunday, October 20th. Both teams finished in the Big 12 basement last year. The Jayhawks finished 13th at 1-7-2, while the Wildcats finished last at 1-8-1. KU was 4-8-6 overall and KSU was 3-12-3.
The final regular season game will be played at ASU on Friday, October 25th.