The Big 12 has figured out what it’s going to do with its football season, adopting the 9+1 model. What should be the non-conference games?
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The Big 12 actually had to work on this one
The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 have all decided to run with a conference-only model without a non-conference opponent. That made sense considering there are more than enough teams in each of the leagues to easily fill out a ten-game schedule, and there wasn’t any reason to pay a team outside of the conference to play without the normal revenue coming in from fans in the stands.
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Since the Big 12 only has ten teams, it had the choice of either 1) playing a nine-game model, 2) going to ten games with a double-up somewhere within the league, or do what they’re doing with this 9+1 version.
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Like it was supposed to be when the season was normal, every Big 12 team was going to play every other Big 12 team for the nine-game schedule. Now each one has to fill out that one extra game to round out the slate.
Flexibility – like it is for the other conferences – is key. The Big 12 is planning on starting in mid-September, and will have its conference championship sometime in mid-December.
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So what will those non-conference games be?
With the Power Five leagues taking the conference-only route, we lose Texas vs. LSU, Iowa State vs. Iowa, Oklahoma vs. Tennessee, West Virginia vs. Florida State, and Kansas State vs. Vanderbilt, but here are the games currently on their slates from the Group of Five and FCS to choose from.
One note, these could all be ditched for other options. Each team would keep one of these, but some of the FCS programs have delayed or cancelled their seasons.
Baylor – Incarnate Word, Louisiana Tech
Iowa State – South Dakota, UNLV
Kansas – at Coastal Carolina, (New Hampshire game postponed)
Kansas State – Buffalo, North Dakota
Oklahoma – Missouri State, at Army
Oklahoma State – Tulsa, Western Illinois
TCU – at SMU, (Prairie View A&M game postponed)
Texas – USF, UTEP
Texas Tech – at UTEP, (Alabama State game postponed)
West Virginia – Eastern Kentucky, Maryland
– 2020 CFN Preseason Big 12 Rankings
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