Arizona opens its 123rd season with something unusual: a Big 12 conference game in Week 2, then a return to non-conference play. The Wildcats host Northern Arizona on Sept 5, travel to BYU on Sept 12 for a league opener, and then face Northern Illinois and Washington State before the Big 12 slate resumes in October.
Brent Brennan’s third team gets seven home games at Casino Del Sol Stadium and closes with the 100th Territorial Cup. One date correction: the TCU game moved to Friday, Nov 6, not Saturday.
Games That Will Decide Arizona’s Season
| Sept 12 at BYU | A Week 2 conference opener in Provo against a top-15 Cougars team, in a midday FOX window. An unusually early swing game. |
| Oct 31 at Texas Tech | Halloween in Lubbock against the reigning Big 12 champions, on a short turnaround before a Friday night home game. The hardest week on the schedule. |
| Nov 14 vs Utah | Utah returns to the Arizona schedule after the Big 12’s rotating matrix brought the Utes back. Morgan Scalley’s team arrives a week after the Holy War. |
| Nov 28 vs Arizona State | The 100th Territorial Cup, at home, to close the regular season. College football’s oldest rivalry trophy reaches a milestone in Tucson. |
How the Schedule Sets Up
The sequencing is genuinely odd — a home tune-up, then a conference game at BYU, then back to non-conference play for two weeks. Arizona is coming off a 9-4 season that ended with five straight regular-season wins before a 24-19 Holiday Bowl loss to SMU, and Noah Fifita returns for his senior year, so the early conference date is less daunting than it might be. October is where it tightens: Cincinnati at home, West Virginia away, the bye, Iowa State at home, then Halloween in Lubbock. The Friday night TCU game follows on a short week. November finishes with Utah at home, Kansas State on the road, and the Territorial Cup. The rotating Big 12 matrix means Arizona misses Oklahoma State and Kansas this year while adding Utah and TCU. For the postseason picture, here’s how the College Football Playoff works under the 12-team format. Conference scheduling across the NCAA FBS continues to trend toward deeper league slates.
The Bottom Line
Seven home games, a Week 2 conference opener in Provo, a Friday night against TCU, and the 100th Territorial Cup to close — Brent Brennan’s third Arizona schedule is oddly sequenced but genuinely winnable. Bookmark this page; times, networks, and results are updated throughout the season.