"Brett Yormark and Big 12's biggest miss": CFB fans react to Big 12's football schedule for 2024 season
College football fans aren't happy with the Big 12's schedule for the 2024 season after the conference unveiled its 16-team slate on Tuesday. The conference has added Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State for the upcoming season, and fans were excited about this year's matchups.
In November, the Big 12 said the schedule, which features nine conference matchups, prioritizes geography, historic matchups and rivalries. The conference decided to stay at nine conference games despite the SEC and ACC dropping to eight.
The first conference matchup will be on Sept. 14 when UCF visits TCU. However, some games still do not have a date, as it's uncertain if they will be played on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
After the Big 12 schedule was released, several fans took to social media to share their opinion. One user felt the conference should have scheduled the "Holy War" rivalry match between BYU and Utah on Thanksgiving.
"Yormark and the Big 12's biggest miss since inviting Utah to the conference is not scheduling the Holy War on Thanksgiving weekend," the fan wrote.
Here are some more fan reactions:
"I really like Kansas’ chances with their schedule. This is gonna be a fun season."
"How exactly do i book a hotel for thurs or fri or sat? Big 12 fumbles again."
"So the Big 12 schedule features: TCU-Baylor. Utah-BYU. Iowa State-West Virginia. Kansas-Kansas State. And managed to somehow not schedule a single one of those matchups during Rivalry Week?"
As many fans point out, they feel that Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark failed by not scheduling so many key rivalries on rivalry week. The other big takeaway is that BYU vs. Utah will not take place on Thanksgiving weekend, which many expected to be the case.
Brett Yormark says Big 12 schedule is 'exactly where we needed'
Before the Big 12 schedule was released, commissioner Brett Yormark was happy with how it was coming along and thought fans would have a good reception to it.
“(Big 12 vice president of football) Scott Draper led the charge in our scheduling,” Yormark said ahead of the 2023 Big 12 championship game. “We created a committee and athletic directors weighed in on what it would look like. I think we landed in a wonderful spot.
“I was very pleased with it. It was a collaborative effort. And we’ll see how it unfolds. But I think it was exactly where we needed to land.”
Not many fans seemed to like the Big 12's schedule due to rivalry week, while others believe Kansas should cruise to the conference championship game.