Multiple Sources Reporting 2023 Big 12 Football Schedule Out This Week

STILLWATER – You almost feel like there should be a network television reveal show for this. The anxiously awaited 2023 Big 12 football schedule will be out for the public sometime this week according to multiple sources that Pokes Report has heard from. Of course, there is a detail in the existing contract that the Big 12 has with its television partners, ESPN and FOX, that they receive a schedule for the next season by Feb. 1 or there is some sort of financial penalty attached. 

Back on Jan. 7 in Los Angeles for the CFP Championship Game, current Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said he thought the schedule would be out before the end of the month.

This schedule has been more anxiously awaited than any in recent memory for several reasons. It will be a 14-team schedule where there will not be a complete round-robin of teams in the league playing each other. BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston join the 10-team league. One of the major questions is whether the Big 12 will be a 14-team conference for one season (academic year) or two seasons. 

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Oklahoma and Texas upset the Big 12 happy family.

Oklahoma and Texas confirmed a Houston Chronicle report in July of 2021 that the schools were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. The news blindsided then Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and the other eight members of the conference. Now, the major question is whether the two schools leaving will leave early and pay the penalty (est. $168 million each) for early departure or will they negotiate a lesser charge. The other option is to stay through 2024-25 and finish the current television contract and the grant-of-rights agreement holding them to the Big 12. 

Either way, both schools are in the Big 12 for this season and will get a taste of the new Big 12 before they depart. 

A lot more will be clear for the immediate upcoming season and likely the 2024 football season once the schedule hits the light of air. 

Little is known about the prospective schedule or how the process went down, except that school officials have seen at least the opponents each program will have.

Pokes Report was informed by a source that said they were privy to the schedule that the Cowboys would have five games at home and four on the road next season. We know Oklahoma State opens with Central Arkansas on Sept. 2, travels to Arizona State on Sept. 9, and will host South Alabama on Sept. 16.

Our source said in conference play that Oklahoma State would host Bedlam, almost assuredly the final edition of Bedlam in Boone Pickens Stadium for some time. Oklahoma State would also host Houston in Boone Pickens Stadium in 2023. The other item our source mentioned was Texas would not be on the Cowboys schedule. That is actually good for Texas if true. The Longhorns have lost 7 of the last 10 meetings between the two schools.