West Virginia football Big 12 Conference schedule likely to look different

One thing that seems assured at this point is that the Big 12 Conference football schedule that West Virginia plays this fall isn’t going to be the one they currently have now.

If there was any doubt about that, West Virginia Director of Athletics Shane Lyons addressed the topic as part of his sit down on the WVUSports.com website. The Big 12 announced Monday that the league will play a slate of nine conference games as well as one-conference home game.

The conference games are scheduled to begin in mid-to-late September and for now it seems that the Mountaineers are going to be preparing for a different look to the slate.

“Almost 100-percent that is going to happen,” he said when asked if the schedule would be altered.

The reasoning for that is that the Big 12 is currently working for ways to build as many bye weeks into the schedule as possible which the current model obviously does not allow for that.

The original Big 12 slate was as follows: Sept. 26 against Kansas State, Oct. 3 at Texas Tech, Oct. 10 against TCU, Oct. 17 at Texas, Oct. 24 against Kansas, Nov. 7 against Oklahoma, Nov. 14 at Oklahoma State, Nov. 21 against Baylor and Nov. 28 at Iowa State.

That gave the Mountaineers five home games and four on the road. It’s unclear what changes could come under the new model but the anticipation is that the schedule will be built around maximizing those bye opportunities. Why is that significant?

Because teams can essentially be grouped and play in pods. That way if a game is postponed or canceled the upcoming bye week would allow those teams within the same pod to make up that game.

“That game can be played because both teams will be available during that bye week,” Lyons said.

Lyons projects that teams could feature somewhere between three to four bye weeks on the new schedule leading into a Big 12 championship game which will be held either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19. Flexibility is key and again this move would help accomplish that as well.

“That would give us more flexibility if we go down the path that games are canceled or postponed,” Lyons said.

One that that does seem a certainty, at least as much as something can be during this climate, is that West Virginia will open the season Sept. 12 against Eastern Kentucky. There have been discussions of possibly moving the game up, but Lyons feels comfortable with where that game is placed.

The good news is that there shouldn’t be too long of a wait as Lyons anticipates the schedule being likely released sometime this week.

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