Way-Too-Early Look At BYU Football’s 2025 Schedule
Dec 29, 2024, 12:14 PM | Updated: 1:56 pm
Taking an early look at the opponents on the 2025 BYU football schedule. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
(Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
When one BYU football season ends, it’s time to start looking ahead to the next one.
After an 11-2 record in 2024, capped by a 36-14 victory over Colorado in the Alamo Bowl, BYU will gear up for its third season in the Big 12 Conference in 2025.
2025 OPPONENTS pic.twitter.com/jqWxvRmCJP
— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) September 12, 2024
The question now is, what’s next?
BYU’s next game is on August 30 against Portland State from the FCS ranks to kick off the 2025 season.
Here’s a way-too-early look at BYU’s 2025 schedule.
2025 BYU Football Schedule
Like the 2024 season, the 2025 schedule will feature two bye weeks due to week one kicking off in August.
BYU’s schedule in 2025 will feature four Big 12 home games and five league matchups on the road.
The Big 12 Conference has yet to announce the dates for the 2025 conference schedule. Since BYU joined the league in 2023, the previous two schedules were unveiled at the end of January or early February.
August 30 – Portland State Vikings
BYU will open a season at home against Portland State from the FCS ranks. Where have we heard this before?
The last time BYU faced Portland State was in the 2017 season opener. BYU only won that game by a score of 20-6 in a year, which saw the Cougars finish with a 4-9 record.
Portland State finished the 2024 season with a 3-8 record.
September 6 – Stanford Cardinal
BYU needed a power conference opponent on the nonconference schedule for the 2025 season. They moved up a future home game against Stanford scheduled for the 2031 season to 2025.
BYU will host Stanford in Provo for the first time since 2003. The Cougars won their last meeting against the Cardinal in the 2022 regular-season finale in Palo Alto.
Former Utah offensive coordinator Troy Taylor coaches Stanford. In his first two years on the Farm, Taylor has posted a record of 6-18 as Stanford’s head coach.
September 20 – at East Carolina Pirates
BYU will complete the two-game contract with the East Carolina Pirates in 2025.
ECU played the first game of the series in Provo in 2022. So, the Cougars are honoring the contract that dates back to the Independence era by making the 2,231-mile trip to Greenville, North Carolina.
It will be BYU’s second visit to ECU. The first visit was in 2017, one of the low points in the Kalani Sitake era, where BYU lost to the Pirates 33-17.
East Carolina has won the last two meetings against BYU, which includes the last-second victory in Provo in 2022.
The Pirates finished 2024 with an 8-5 record and a victory over NC State in the Bowl Season.
Big 12 Home Games
- TCU Horned Frogs
- UCF Knights
- Utah Utes
- West Virginia Mountaineers
Utah and UCF are repeat opponents from the 2024 schedule who will visit Provo in 2025. It will be interesting to see what direction the Big 12 Conference will take in scheduling the BYU-Utah game next year.
Will it go to an early November spot again? In 2024, the matchup in Rice-Eccles Stadium delivered 2.2 million viewers as undefeated BYU escaped an upset bid from the Utes with a 22-21 victory.
Or will the Big 12 send the game to the final week of the regular season?
BYU will face the two new head coaches in the Big 12 Conference at LaVell Edwards Stadium next year. UCF’s Scott Frost and West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez return to the programs where they’ve had the most success in their coaching careers.
Big 12 Road Games
- at Arizona Wildcats
- at Cincinnati Bearcats
- at Colorado Buffaloes
- at Iowa State Cyclones
- at Texas Tech Red Raiders
Two of these opponents were teams BYU faced in 2024 (Arizona, Colorado).
BYU will be making its first trip to Tucson since 2018. The trip to Boulder will be BYU’s first since 1981.
BYU’s other three Big 12 road games are return trips against teams the Cougars hosted in Provo during their first Big 12 schedule in 2023.
The Big 12 typically gives its teams a bye after a road game to a two-timezone venue. For BYU in 2025, that would be the trip to Cincinnati, which falls in the Eastern Time Zone.
BYU’s game at Colorado in Boulder should carry a lot of intrigue as the Buffs will look for revenge after the Cougars rolled through them in the Alamo Bowl.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
