Oklahoma State's First Visit to BYU for Football Will Be on a Friday Night
STILLWATER – A week ago when FOX Television announced they were going to anationally televised college football game every Friday night this fall replacing the WWE programming they had on previous fall Fridays, that increased to almost 100 percent that the Oklahoma State at BYU game scheduled for either Friday, Oct. 18 or Saturday, Oct. 19 was going to be pushed to the Friday date. FOX said they will take inventory from television partners in the Big 12 and Big Ten for their Friday night primetime presentations. ESPN also has a Power Four Conference football offering on Fridays, sometime two games. Often, ESPN has had BYU in that slot. Before joining the Big 12, BYU had a contract with ESPN for eight games a season. Those games often were scheduled on Fridays, so there is a precedence for the Cougars in that slot.
The time and the coverage, FOX or ESPN, will be determined likely in late May or early June. The Friday date is convenient for the Cowboys as it follows their first bye or open week of the season allowing head coach Mike Gundy and his staff maximum preparation for what should be a difficult game.
BYU has their first of two open weeks two weeks prior to the Friday game as they will be off on Saturday, Oct. 5 and they play at home with Arizona on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Oklahoma State is 3-0 all-time vs. BYU with wins in the 1974 Fiesta Bowl, the 1976 Tangerine Bowl, and last season’s double overtime 40-34 win over the Cougars in Stillwater. That win came in the final Big 12 regular season contest and earned the Cowboys the trip to Arlington, Texas to play Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game.
In their first season in the Big 12, head coach Kalani Sitake and BYU finished 5-7 overall and 2-7 in Big 12 Conference games. However, the Cougars were very competitive in most of their contests. BYU is a proud program that has a strong history in college football.
As you can tell from the cover picture on this story, and the picture to the left, LaVell Edwards Stadium, the BYU campus, and Provo, Utah are located along the Wasatch Front, and they lie between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south. With a population at the 2020 census of 115,162, Provo is the fourth-largest city in Utah and the principal city in the Provo-Orem metropolitan area, which had a population of 526,810 at the 2010 census.
It is a beautiful area and it is expected that a high number of Oklahoma State fans will make the trip to Provo to see the pristine BYU campus and the beautiful location of the school. That could become a little more difficult with the game being finalized on Friday.
In a very odd occurrence, Oklahoma State football will play two Friday games in the 2024 season. They played one last season hosting Kansas State for a blackout game on Friday, Oct. 6. Besides the BYU contest, Oklahoma State will play at Colorado on the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, Nov. 29.
In all, Oklahoma State and the Cowboys fans will have four Saturdays where they will not have football games.
Saturday, Oct. 12
Saturday, Oct. 19
Saturday, Nov. 16
Saturday, Nov. 30
Get your planners out for any family events for this fall.