Big 12 Releases 2021 Schedule

The B-12 2021 schedule came out this week, with some new, some old, and some traditional match-ups!

The New:

Baylor welcoming BYU to Waco, TX. These teams have played twice in their long histories, Baylor won in 1983, 40-36 & BYU won in 1984, 47-13. Baylor is coming off a difficult year, 2-7, in Dave Aranda’s 1st season, while BYU experienced its best & strangest year, perhaps ever. The Cougars did not play one game on a major network, lost all 6 of the Power 5 opponents to Covid rescheduling & then scheduled a game (Coastal Carolina beat BYU, 22-17) and played it 56 hours later! BYU went 11-1 in 2020, however, they enter the 2021 season w/o Mr. All-Everything, QB, Zach Wilson.

TCU battles California on Sept. 11th in Fort Worth, TX. The Horned Frogs & Golden Bears have played only once, in the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl. TCU won the game, 10-7. This will be one of two match-ups between the B-12 & the PAC-12 in 2021!

Kansas State vs Stanford in the Allstate Kickoff Classic @ AT&T Stadium, in Arlington, TX. This will be the 2nd meeting between the schools. Stanford won the 1st ever meeting between the universities, in 2016, 26-13!

The Old:

West Virginia takes on 2 old rivals, Maryland (B-10) Sept. 4th & Virginia Tech (ACC) Sept. 10th. The Mountaineers have battled the Terrapins 52 times. The 1st meeting was played on Oct. 18th, 1919, a game won by WV, 27-0! The most recent meeting was Sept. 26th, 2015, a game also won by WV, 45-6. West Virginia leads the all time series, 28-22-2!

WV has kicked it off, vs VT, 52 times, the exact number of games the Mountaineers have played against the Terps. The teams first met on Nov. 16, 1912, VT won the game 41-0 (the largest winning margin by either team) while their most recent game was Sept. 3rd 2017, a game that was also won by V-Tech, 31-24! The teams play for the Black Diamond Trophy with WV leading the series, 28-23-1.

Texas vs Arkansas an old SWC (Southwest Conference) game. These teams in the 60’s & 70’s would play on the season’s final weekend with the conference championship regularly going to the winner. The Hogs vs Horns have played 78 times, with Texas leading the series 56-22! The teams’ first meeting was on Nov. 29th, 1894, the Longhorns won, 54-0 with their last game being played on December 29, 2014, the Razorbacks won in the Texas Bowl, 31-7! Their most famous meeting (my opinion) was on Dec. 6th, 1969 with Texas scoring late to win 15-14 and the Horns then beat ND, 21-17, in the Cotton Bowl to win the National Championship! This was the last segregated team to win a college football championship.

Nebraska @ Oklahoma in the 1970’s this was one of, if not, the biggest game of the college football season. During those years, both teams were part of the Big 8 Conference, later the Big-8 merged with the disbanding SWC. The Sooners & Huskers have duked it out 86 times. Their 1st meeting was on Nov. 23, 1912, Nebraska won, 13-9 and their last meeting was on December 4th, 2010. It was to be Nebraska’s final game in the Big-12; (Began play in the B-10 in 2011) fittingly against OU, for the Big 12 Championship! Oklahoma won a great game & the B-12 championship, 23-20!

The Sooners lead the series 45-38-3, Nebraska has the largest MOV (margin of victory) 69-7 in 1969. OU counters with the longest winning streak in the series, 16 straight from 1943 thru 1958! This rivalry has been/was/can be again/ intense! OU has given the Cornhuskers their only loss in 5 different seasons (1964, 1966, 1975, 1979, & 1987) while the Huskers returned the insult twice, 1971 (voted as the best regular season game ever) and in 1978!

The Traditional

Iowa @ Iowa State the annual, in-state, battle between the B-10’s rep Iowa & ISU, out of the B-12! The teams play for the CY/Hawk Trophy! They first played on Oct. 1st 1894, with the Cyclones winning, 16-8 and their most recent game, Sept. 11th, 2019, with the Hawks getting it done, 18-17.

These teams have met on the gridiron 67 times with Iowa leading the series, 45-22! The Hawks have the largest MOV, 57-3 in 1985, the longest winning streak, 15 straight (1983-1997) and have won the last 5 games.

TCU vs SMU a rare rivalry played between a Power 5 (P5) program and a Group of 5 (G5) team. In fact, the only other such rivalry (P5 vs G5) that comes to mind, is the ND/Navy annual battle.

These teams have played 99 games with the Horned Frogs (TCU) leading the series against the Mustangs, 51-41-7. Texas Christian holds the largest MOV, 56-0, in 2014, the longest winning streak (15) from 1972 thru 1986, while SMU holds the current win streak of one game!

The teams play for the Iron Skillet Trophy, several stories of why a skillet are out there, with no clear consensus! The teams first played on Oct. 18th, 1915, TCU won 43-0 while SMU won the most recent game, Sept. 21st, 2019, 41-38!

http://sullyscollegefootballpage.com/Football_Stats/Conference_Listings.cfm?MCID=1&DVID=4

Please note, on Sully’s College Football Page (SCFP) we color code games for your quick review (red is conference, Yellow is a P5 opponent, Green in a G5 team, and Blue is an FCS Program (63 Scholarships as opposed to an FBS team which awards 85 scholarships).

We do this so that at a glance, you can see WV is playing (2 yellow dots on their schedule profile) Maryland (B-10) & VT (ACC), while Texas Tech & Oklahoma State are not playing a Non-Conference, P5 opponent (No Yellow). This is, at least on the surface, an indicator that WV is playing the strongest NC schedule in the B-12 in 2021! And given that the B-12 plays a round robin schedule (play every team in the league), one can/could argue that West Virginia has the B-12 most challenging line-up of opponents in 2021!

Check out the B-12 and then compare it to the B-10’s, SEC’s & ACC’s NC schedules! The PAC 12 has yet to release their 2021 schedule!