Big 12 fails to protect some of its oldest football rivalries in new scheduling model

The Big 12 is home to some of the oldest rivalries in all of college football, but the conference will stop scheduling some of its most storied matchups annually when four new teams join the league next year.

Kansas State’s yearly battle with Iowa State, which has been played continuously since 1917 and is affectionately called “Farmageddon” by fans on both signs, won’t happen in 2027 unless the Cyclones and the Wildcats meet in the Big 12 championship game.

The Kansas Jayhawks will also see their annual rivalry with the Cyclones go dark for a year in 2026. KU and ISU began playing each other all the way back in 1898 and have played just about every year since 1916.

Both games, along with many others, will lose their annual status under a new scheduling model that includes Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. The Big 12 unveiled it on Wednesday.

The conference decided to only protect four annual rivalries between now and 2027. They are: Arizona and Arizona State, BYU and Utah, Baylor and TCU, plus K-State and KU.

That means classic matchups — such as Kansas and Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and TCU, Baylor and K-State and several others — will no longer be played every single year.

Other leagues, such as the ACC and Big Ten, have put in a lot of work to protect some of their oldest rivalries in the wake of conference realignment. The Big 12 opted for a system that will protect only a few rivalries but allow all 16 teams to play every other team in the conference at least twice over the next four years.

K-State and KU will both continue to play old Big Eight rivals Iowa State and Oklahoma State in most years, it just won’t happen year in and year out like fans are used to.

The Jayhawks will play Iowa State in 2024, 2025 and 2027. The Wildcats will play Iowa State in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

KU will avoid Oklahoma State in 2024 and K-State will avoid the Cowboys in 2027.

But the Sunflower Showdown is safe, at least until the Big 12 comes up with a new scheduling matrix for 2028 and beyond.

Future KU conference games

2024 - Home: Colorado, TCU, Houston, Iowa State. Away: Arizona State, BYU, Baylor, K-State, West Virginia.

2025 - Home: Utah, Oklahoma State, K-State, Cincinnati, West Virginia. Away: Arizona, Texas Tech, Iowa State, UCF.

2026 - Home: Arizona State, BYU, Baylor, UCF. Away: Utah, TCU, Oklahoma State, K-State, West Virginia.

2027 - Home: Arizona, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, K-State, Iowa State. Away: BYU, Colorado, Houston, Cincinnati.

Future K-State conference games

2024 - Home: Arizona State, Cincinnati, KU, Oklahoma State. Away: BYU, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, West Virginia.

2025 - Home: UCF, Colorado, Iowa State, TCU, Texas Tech. Away: Baylor, KU, Oklahoma State, Utah.

2026 - Home: Arizona, Houston, KU, Oklahoma State. Away: Arizona State, Cincinnati, Colorado, Iowa State, TCU.

2027 - Home: Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Utah, West Virginia. Away: Arizona, UCF, KU, Texas Tech.