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- BYU basketball will face Utah, Arizona, and Texas Tech twice in Big 12.
- The conference returns to an 18-game schedule, mindful of travel concerns and competitive balance.
- BYU women's basketball will face Arizona State, Colorado and Utah home-and-away.
PROVO — The Big 12 is taking a step back from last season's 20-game conference schedule, but that won't reduce the number of quality matchups in Kevin Young's second season at BYU.
The conference announced its scheduling matrix Thursday morning after shifting back to an 18-game conference schedule for the 2025-26 season, which includes three home-and-home contests for each team and one matchup (home or road) against the rest of the league.
For BYU, that means home-and-home tilts with in-state rival Utah, as well as Arizona and Texas Tech next season. The scheduling matrix was built using a combination of travel concerns, geographies, rivalries and competition, commissioner Brett Yormark explained during the Big 12 basketball tournament in March.
"We're very mindful of the wear and tear and that travel is one of our guiding principles when we think about scheduling," Yormark said. "We're making sure we're very sensitive to that, and that will continue."
The new matrix was particularly mindful of additional games between teams from the west, such as BYU, Utah and the Arizona schools, traveling east to games at Cincinnati, West Virginia and UCF. Neither BYU nor Utah have a home-and-home with any of the three teams in the eastern time zone.
"One of the impetuses for that is the balance of conference versus nonconference games," said Big 12 vice president Brian Thornton, who oversees men's basketball. "It's extremely important for the competitive nature of our conference to have the ability to have a bye built into our schedule."
The move also aligns with Big 12 women's basketball, which played an 18-game conference schedule last year when the conference moved to 16 teams with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.
Here's how the Cougars' men's basketball conference schedule will break down after nonconference tilts that include Connecticut (in Boston), Clemson (at Madison Square Garden), Wisconsin (at Delta Center), and Vllanova (in Las Vegas):
- Home and away: Arizona, Texas Tech, Utah
- Home only: Arizona State, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, TCU, UCF
- Away only: Baylor, Cincinnati, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, West Virginia
It's all leading up to what some are calling the most anticipated season in BYU men's basketball history, with No. 1 overall recruit AJ Dybantsa and four-star center Xavion Staton leading a group of newcomers that includes Baylor transfer Robert Wright III, former Washington redshirt Dominique Diomande, Idaho's Tyler Mrus, Nate Pickens out of UC Riverside, and Kennard Davis Jr. from Southern Illinois.
2025-26 #Big12WBB Opponent Matrix 🏀 pic.twitter.com/GQPAlmE4Wu
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) June 12, 2025
Young enters his second season after setting a program record for most wins by a first-year head coach in BYU men's basketball history, compiling a 26-10 overall record and the Cougars' first Sweet 16 appearance since 2011.
After signing a long-term contract extension in the offseason, his squad brings back more than 50% of its minutes from a year ago — led by leading scorer Richie Saunders, the Big 12's reigning Most Improved player who averaged 16.5 points per game on 51.8% shooting en route to All-Big 12 first-team honors.
In women's basketball, the Cougars will open Lee Cummard's first season as head coach — and Year 2 with returning Big 12 freshman of the year Delaney Gibb — with home-and-away matchups against Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. Here's how BYU's Big 12 schedule will stack up overall:
- Home and away: Arizona State, Colorado, Utah
- Home only: Baylor, Cincinnati, Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech, West Virginia
- Away only: Arizona, UCF, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State
"The matchups for next season really get me excited about our third season as a member of the Big 12 Conference," Cummard said. "This is the deepest basketball conference in the country, which means big-time games in historic arenas and hosting elite teams in the Marriott Center every night out. Our team is excited and ready for the challenge of competing against the best teams in the country."
