Only three short years ago, Big 12 teams played a perfect round robin schedule. Every school vied against every other, and so schedules frankly rarely paid much relevance. As the conference exploded from 10 to 16 teams, though, schedules have never been more important.
In this era, getting a good draw can make all the difference. Reigning Big 12 champ Arizona State was able to ramp up in the middle of last season to prepare for top contenders Kansas State and BYU in the second half of the year. Iowa State played six teams in conference that missed bowl games. Chances are, the teams with the easiest schedule this year will also have a huge advantage to reaching the postseason.
Now granted, here’s the thing: In the Big 12, the strength of schedules are somewhat unpredictable. Two years ago, West Virginia appeared to be facing one of the hardest schedules in the league, but ended up with the easiest. Additionally, every team in the conference has FanDuel win totals between 5.5 and 8.5. The teams are, frankly, just not far enough apart that there can be free rides.
That said, getting a good draw can make all the difference in flying through the schedule, picking up tiebreakers and earning a trip to AT&T Stadium to play for a Big 12 title. With that in mind, here’s how we rank the toughest schedules in the conference in 2025.
Note: The Big 12 no longer does an official preseason poll, so we’re using the 247Sports Big 12 poll, featuring votes from all 16 team site publishers.
Big 12 2025 Strength of Schedule