Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Have Winning Record Against Big 12 Football Foes
May 14, 2024 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — As the Colorado Buffaloes played host to the Pac-12 Outdoor Track and Field championships last weekend, it marked the end of an era.
Goodbye Pac-12, hello (again) Big 12. The event was CU's last appearance in a Pac-12 event as the Buffs next year will return to the Big 12.
But when Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders' Buffs open the 2024 season, CU's new conference will have a much different look than it did in 2010, Colorado's last season in the league.
Some quick notes and numbers on CU's soon-to-be new neighborhood:
Who's gone: Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M — Big 12 members when CU last played in the league — are now in other conferences.
Who's still there: Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Baylor were all in the league when CU left.
Who's new: Brigham Young, Cincinnati, Houston, TCU, Central Florida and West Virginia will become conference foes for the Buffaloes. (It will be the second time around for the Buffs and BYU, who were conference affiliates from 1938-46 in the old Mountain States Conference).
Familiar faces: Making the move with Colorado from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 will be Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.
Competitive league: At least five teams in the conference have made their way into early top 25 football rankings for next season, including those of The Athletic and Fox analyst (and former Buff) Joel Klatt. Those teams are:
Utah (No. 6 Klatt, No. 25 The Athletic)
Arizona (No. 21, No. 19)
Kansas (No. 23 in both)
Kansas State (No. 20, No. 16)
Oklahoma State (No. 19, No. 24)
All five teams are on Colorado's schedule next fall, along with Nebraska, which earned the No. 22 spot with Klatt.
CU has a winning record against the league: The Buffs have an all-time winning record against nine of their new conference mates, a losing record against just two, a tie against three, and one program they have never faced. The list:
Arizona — 16-10
Arizona State — 4-10
Baylor — 9-7
BYU — 8-3-1
Cincinnati — 1-0
Houston — 1-0
Iowa State — 49-15-1
Kansas — 42-25-3
Kansas State — 45-20-1
Oklahoma State — 26-20-1
TCU — 1-1
Texas Tech — 5-5
UCF — 0-0
Utah — 32-34-3
West Virginia — 1-1
He's still there: The Buffs will play Big 12 teams next falll that have the same coach as when they last met: Oklahoma State (Mike Gundy) and Utah (Kyle Whittingham). Colorado will also see the same coaches next fall against non-conference foes Nebraska (Matt Rhule) and Colorado State (Jay Norvell). The Buffs played Utah, Nebraska and Colorado State last season. The last time they saw Oklahoma State was in the 2016 Alamo Bowl.
Did someone mention basketball? While it's still a long way to hoops season, it's worth mentioning that there might not be a tougher men's basketball conference in the nation. Last season's final AP top 25 poll included these teams: No. 3 Houston, No. 8 Iowa State, No. 12 Arizona, No. 16 Baylor and No. 19 Kansas.
