BYU finally gets the Big 12 back on its future schedule with a home-and-home with Baylor.
BYU keeps putting together a great schedule and they added a team from the Big 12 with a home-and-home with the Baylor Bears. The games will be six years down the road with the first game being played in Waco, Texas, in 2021, and the second game will be the following year at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The two teams have played each other in over 30 years when the two split back-to-back games in 1983 and 1984. Give credit to Baylor for finally beefing up their out of league scheduling.
“We are excited to set a home and home series with a tradition-rich, faith-based football program like BYU,” Baylor Director of Athletics Ian McCaw said. “This will be another strength of schedule enhancement and a high quality intersectional game that will be appealing to television and the fans of both programs.”
Of course, BYU AD Tom Holmoe was happy to get the Big 12 back on the schedule.
“We are excited to have Baylor on our schedule again,” Holmoe said. “Baylor is an exceptional football program and it’s great to see the two schools competing again.”
The one interesting tidbit about this game is that BYU is being counting towards Baylor’s requirement of playing a Power Five school in the non-conference slate, and this game directly from commissioner Bob Bowlsby. This is a one-time exception for the league.
Big 12 has only approved BYU as non-league Power 5 opponent for Baylor series & not rest of league so far, Big 12 spokesman said
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) March 31, 2016
For those looking into this exception don’t do so for more than a few seconds. This is a one-time exception and that becomes clear when looking at Baylor’s 2021 and 2022 non-conference schedule. Texas State and Louisiana Tech on the schedule before the addition of BYU, so Baylor had to get permission to have the Cougars count as a Power Five team because they did not have one lined up.
BYU is counted as a Power Five team from the ACC, Big Ten, and SEC; so they are a de facto Power Five team in the Cougar name. The Big 12 just made an exception at this point and this has no direct correlation to the Big 12 possibly adding BYU to the conference, but the logical answer is that Baylor asked the Big 12 for a favor in their scheduling and the league granted that request.
