Buffs

Big 12 Releases 2025 League Football Schedules Seven Homes Games Highlight Coach Prime’s Third Season

Big 12 Releases 2025 League Football Schedules
Seven Homes Games Highlight Coach Prime’s Third Season
BOULDER—The Big 12 Conference announced the league football schedules Tuesday, a slate that includes four league home games that will give the Colorado Buffaloes seven home games for the first time in 43 seasons.
The third season under Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders includes the three non-conference home games against Georgia Tech (Aug. 30), Delaware (Sept. 6) and Wyoming (Sept. 20).  Announced Tuesday were the nine conference games that include road games at Houston (Sept. 13), TCU (Oct. 4), Utah (Oct. 25), West Virginia (Nov. 8) and Kansas State (Nov. 29), and home games against BYU (Sept. 27), Iowa State (Oct. 11), Arizona (Nov. 1) and Arizona State (Nov. 22).
With seven home games, the 2025 season will mark just the third time seven or more home games will take place at Folsom Field in a season, and the first since Bill McCartney’s first team in 1982 had seven home games.  The only other time it happened was eight home games in Bill Mallory’s final season in 1978.  CU is also scheduled to have seven home games in 2027, 2028 and 2030 looking forward.
Season tickets are on-sale now.  The renewal period for season tickets will close later this week with seat selection taking place in April and single games tickets expected to be on sale in May.
Inside the Big 12 will host a 2025 Football Schedule Release Show that will air on ESPNU, ESPN+, FS2, TruTV & MAX and on Big 12 Studios and YouTube with experts discussing all 16 league schedules and identifying key matchups around the league beginning at 10 a.m. MT.
CU currently has signed 31 players via high school (14) and the transfer portal (17), including a CU record 13 players who were either 4- or 5-star recruits.  Five-star QB Julian Lewis headlines the class from high school that includes eight 4-star recruits including MaxPreps National Player of the Year Quentin Gibson.  Lewis is the fourth 5-star recruit that Coach Prime has signed, doubling the total of 5-star recruits from the past 25 seasons.
Liberty transfer QB Kaidon Salter and Alabama DL Jeheim Oatis, who was the top ranked player in the portal when the Buffs signed him, headline the list of transfers the Buffs have signed to date.  Currently ranked the No. 23 class by 247, this is the third straight top 25 class Coach Prime has signed.
Key returners include 2024 5-star OT Jordan Seaton, who was one of four true freshmen to start on offense alongside Cash Cleveland, Drelon Miller and Micah Welch.  Also returning are an experience defensive backfield with Preston Hodge, DJ McKinney, Carter Stoutmire and Colton Hood all gaining valuable experience while edge players Taje McCoy, Samuel Okunlola, Keaton Wade and Arden Walker all made big player defensively.
Times and television for the first three weeks, plus any movement of games to Thursday or Friday, will be announced in late May or early June when the television partners of the Big 12 and other Power 4 conferences make their initial TV selections.  After the third week, times and television will be selected 12 days ahead of gameday with the exception of four six-day selections the TV partners can engage contractually.  Additionally, CU will announce special game weeks, including Family Weekend and Homecoming, at a later date.
A game-by-game look at the 2025 Schedule:
Aug. 30 vs. Georgia Tech – Although the two teams have never met on the gridiron, they share a rivalry as the two teams that split the 1990 National Championship, with the Buffs being named national champions by the AP and the Yellow Jackets by the UPI/Coaches poll. The ensuing controversy helped lead to the creation of the Bowl Coalition, the precursor to the Bowl Championship Series and eventually the College Football Playoffs.  The Buffs were also crowned National Champions by the Football Writers Association of America, the National Football Foundation, and in the USA Today/CNN poll.  The game is the first of a home-and-home that will see the Buffs head to Atlanta on Sept. 5, 2026.  The Buffs are 18-22 against current members of the ACC, which includes a combined 11-14 record against California and Stanford, and a 7-8 mark against the other teams.
Sept. 6 vs. Delaware – Another first-time opponent, the Blue Hens were added to the non-conference schedule ahead of the 2024 season when the Buffs and Houston became conference foes, as a home-and-home with the Cougars was set for 2025-26 and a game had to be added.  Delaware is reclassifying to the FBS in 2025 as a member of Conference USA and has a rich history in the FCS with six national championships. In 2024, Delaware was 9-2 overall and were not eligible to participate in the FCS playoffs due to reclassification rules.
Sept. 13 at Houston – Originally a non-conference game, the Buffs and Cougars will meet for the first time as Big 12 foes in Week 3.  The two have previously met once in football in the 1971 Bluebonnet Bowl when the seventh-ranked Buffaloes beat the No. 15 Cougars 29-17 on Dec. 31, at the Astrodome in Houston, to cap a 10-2 season.  The win propelled the Buffaloes to a final ranking of No. 3 in the AP poll behind No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Oklahoma, the first time one conference has occupied the top three spot in the poll.  CU beat LSU and Ohio State on the road that season and its only losses were to the Huskers and Sooners.
 
Sept. 20 vs. Wyoming – Regional foes located just 91 miles apart as the crow flies, the Buffs and Cowboys have faced each other 27 times in football, but just once this century and just six times in the last 78 seasons.  Colorado owns a 24-2-1 record over Wyoming and the last time they faced each other in 2009, the Buffs won 24-0 in a throwback game that features jerseys similar to what Byron White’s Buffaloes teams wore in the 1930s.  The two first faced off some 125 years ago in 1900 with CU winning 10-6 at Gamble Field.   The two teams were conference rivals in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference from 1916-37 and in the Mountain States Conference from 1938-47 before the Buffs departed for the Big Eight.
Sept. 27 vs. BYU – In a rematch of the Alamo Bowl and match-up of two of the four teams that tied for first place in the 2024 Big 12 regular season standings, much like the CU-Wyoming series, the Buffs and Cougars will meet as conference rivals for the first time since 1947 when the two were members of the Mountain States Conference together.  CU has played BYU three times since that last match-up in 1947, with BYU taking all three games, that included a regular season game in 1981 and bowl victories in the 1988 Freedom Bowl and last year’s Alamo Bowl.   The Buffs won the first six games in the series and lead 8-4-1 overall.
Oct. 4 at TCU – In a return trip to the place where the Coach Prime Era got underway with a 45-42 thriller over the No. 17 Horned Frogs, who were coming off an appearance in the national championship game, the Buffs will travel to TCU to open up October.  The two closed out a home-and-home in 2022-23 just before becoming conference foes, the only two games in the series history.  Shedeur Sanders passed for a CU record 510 yards and Travis Hunter had a key interception in their CU debuts to lead the Buffs to victory, a season after TCU handled the Buffs 38-13 in Boulder to open the 2022 season.
Oct. 11 vs. Iowa State – The last long-time conference rivalry reunited in the Buffs return to the Big 12 will take place Oct. 11 with the Cyclones come to Boulder.  Having already faced Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in 2024, the CU-ISU game will be the final rekindled Big 12 rivalry for the Buffaloes.  CU owns a 49-15-1 record all-time against the Cyclones as the two met every season from 1946-2010.  The last time Iowa State came to Boulder was Nov. 13, 2010, the first of three games under interim coach Brian Cabral, a 34-14 victory.  Perhaps the most iconic moment in the series history was Rashaan Salaam’s 67-yard burst around the right end to hit the 2,000-yard mark for the season and secure the school’s first Heisman Trophy.
Oct. 25 at Utah – For the 15th straight season, the Buffs and Utes will square off as conference rivals, this time coming off the first of two bye weeks for the Buffs.  CU broke a seven-game losing streak to the Utes last season when the Buffs topped the Utes 49-24 off of Sanders 340 yards passing and Hunter’s heroics where he became the first player to have 50 receiving yards, a rushing touchdown and an interception in the NFL or FBS since 2000.   The Utes have mostly had their way with the Buffaloes in the modern era, winning 11 of the 14 games since the two became conference members together in the Pac-12 in 2011.  Prior to that, CU held a 29-24-3 record that was largely back and forth throughout the years, with CU winning nine of the first 11 and an 18-6-2 mark from 1934-58.
Nov. 1 vs. Arizona – The Buffs and Wildcats also meet for the 15th straight season in 2025, as CU had an impressive 34-7 win at Tucson last season when the Buffs had their best rushing performance of the season with 148 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.  Sanders passed for 250 yards and threw TD passes to Will Sheppard and Drelon Miller.  CU won the first 12 games in the series from 1931-85 and has won three of the last five dating back to the 2020 season.
Nov. 8 at West Virginia – The Buffs and Mountaineers have faced off twice, a home-and-home series in 2008-09 when the home team won each game.  The 2008 game in Boulder was a classic, as CU jumped out to a 14-0 lead with two Cody Hawkins first quarter touchdowns.  Pat White scored two TDs for the Mountaineers with PATs from Pat McAfee, but it was CU’s Aric Goodman who won the game in OT with a 25-yard field goal after McAfee missed a 23-yarder.  The Mountaineers got revenge a year later in Morgantown, topping the Buffs 35-24.
Nov. 22 vs. Arizona State – CU’s final Pac-12 rivalry renewed (CU faced Utah and Arizona both in 2024 and prior to this in 2025) will take place when the Sun Devils visit Folsom Field for Senior Day.  Prior to becoming Pac-12 rivals, the two met in 2006-07 in a home-and-home series.  ASU won both, and proceeded to win the first seven in the series before CU snapped that streak in its magical 2016 season.  Since then, CU has taken four of the seven games, including a 27-24 win at Arizona State in 2023 in Coach Prime’s first conference win as CU’s coach.  Shedeur Sanders hit Javon Antonio for 43 yards late in the fourth quarter and Alejandro Mata kicked the game-winning 43-yards field goal with 12 seconds left to secure the Buffs win.
 
Nov. 29 at Kansas State – The Buffs and Wildcats continue their renewed rivalry as the two met for the first time since 2010 in 2024.  CU will be looking to exact some revenge on the Wildcats, who won in Boulder for just the sixth time in 34 tries last season.  In Manhattan, the series is much closer with CU holding a 17-15-1 advantage, last winning there 20 years ago in 2005, a 23-20 thriller that saw Mason Crosby hit a 50-yard field goal with just six seconds left to secure the victory.  Joel Klatt threw for 272 yards and became CU’s all-time passing leader in the game.

Curtis C. Snyder

Associate Athletic Director/Athletic Communications (Football, Skiing, Tennis)

Skiing Sport Supervisor

Colorado Buffaloes

 

curtis.snyder@colorado.edu

 

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