Is BYU squaring up for an 18-game conference season in 2023? Complete Big 12 Men's basketball schedule, TV channels, and more

The Big 12 recently announced next season's scheduling matrix and Brigham Young University got to find out its opponents in the 14-team conference.

While the exact dates will be released in September, the Cougars will play five teams home and away while they will play eight of the others once each. This will make for a total of 18 games.

The games were chosen based on historical matchup results, geographical considerations and a poll by coaches to find the right game balance.

The Cougars are joined in their Big 12 move by Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston, who all joined on July 1. They will replace the outgoing Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners, which are moving to the Southeastern Conference.

After their much-anticipated move from being an independent program for the past decade, the Cougars have found the slightly unorthodox scheduling in their new conference.

The Cougars men's basketball games will be as follows:

Home/away

Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, UCF

Home only

Houston, Texas, TCU, Cincinnati

Away only

Kansas, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Oklahoma

CONFERENCE MATCHUPS❕ pic.twitter.com/9e0MK9KoOn

Former Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby pointed out the benefits of having BYU in the conference before he retired:

“I think BYU is a –perhaps with the exception of Notre Dame – they have the biggest worldwide reach of any university in the country. And have been a traditional power, played perennially in the Top 25 in football.”

BYU's journey to a Power Five conference

The Cougars have been independent since 2010 but have always chased a spot at the top table of elite college sports. They first made an application to join the Big 12 in 2016, but their membership bid wasn't accepted.

When they made the same application to the Big 12 in 2021, they were finally accepted, and it has been called the biggest day in the Cougar's history.

Their bid in 2016 was so impressive that they made an impression on the ex-Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. When Texas and Oklahoma left, the Cougars were on the fast track into the Big 12.

“I would say that the 2016 process really helped us as we went into what was a shorter timeframe and didn’t permit quite as long and deliberative of a process as we went through the last time around,” Bowlsby said. “And in the end, we didn’t have anybody that had enough votes to join the league.

"But this time around was a targeted approach. BYU was the first call I made.”

BYU will now welcome elite programs like Houston and Texas to Provo, Utah, which shows just how far they have come.