Big 12 Insider: An early look and breakdown of the league’s 2021 football schedule

The Big 12 football schedule for the 2021 season came out Thursday afternoon.

Fans are already circling dates and making plans for what they hope will be a regular season of attending games by the time kickoff comes around.

The Big 12 season gets started with a real “thriller” — Baylor at Kansas on Sept. 18. All jokes aside, there will be multiple marquee games on Sept. 25 and Oct. 9, as well as three intriguing matchups on Nov. 20.

The Insider takes an early look at the top five games that will help define the 2021 Big 12 season.

Kansas State at Oklahoma State, Sept. 25: Neither of these teams will be favored to win the conference title, but both will fit the “dark horse” label. This opening matchup is intriguing as far as setting up the rest of the season.

K-State got off to a hot start in Big 12 play last season before collapsing down the stretch. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, is coming off a solid season in which it finished ranked but it has lost several key playmakers.

OSU rallied from a 12-0 halftime deficit and defeated K-State 20-18 last season.

Texas at TCU, Oct. 2: Gary Patterson has gotten the best of Texas since joining the Big 12. The Frogs are 7-2 against the Longhorns in those nine meetings, including three straight wins in Fort Worth.

TCU quarterback Max Duggan has played his best against Texas, too, and this will be a pivotal game. Both programs believe they should contend for the Big 12 title in 2021, and this early-season matchup could set the table for how the rest of the year goes for both teams.

Texas vs. Oklahoma at Dallas, Oct. 9: The Red River Showdown, which dates back to 1900, rarely disappoints. Oklahoma has won the last three, including a four-overtime victory a year ago in the longest game of the series.

The Sooners are the early favorites once again, but the Longhorns have renewed hope with new coach Steve Sarkisian. Winning this game at Cotton Bowl Stadium would serve as a highlight early in Sarkisian’s tenure, but Lincoln Riley remains one of the top coaches in the game.

Time will tell but we see the Sooners winning another close game. It would mark the first four-game winning streak for OU in the rivalry since it won five straight from 2000-04.

Iowa State at Oklahoma, Nov. 20: A rematch of last year’s Big 12 championship game. These two teams expect to be in the mix once again with plenty of returning players.

The Cyclones knocked off the Sooners at home last season. OU avenged that loss a couple months later by winning the Big 12 title at AT&T Stadium.

But Iowa State has always played OU tough under Matt Campbell with four of the six games being decided by one score or less. The Cyclones have won in Norman under Campbell, too, doing so in 2017 with a 38-31 victory.

Baylor at Kansas State, Nov. 20: Baylor has won three straight in this series, including two decided by a field goal or less. Last year’s game ranked among the more entertaining in the league with Baylor pulling out a 32-31 victory on a last-second field goal.

Prior to the field goal, there was plenty of drama. K-State came up with a possible fumble on the final drive, but Baylor quarterback Charlie Brewer was ruled down. The Wildcats also went three-and-out on their final offensive possession.

This game will feature two of the league’s more entertaining playmakers, too, in K-State’s Deuce Vaughn and Baylor’s Trestan Ebner.

Five more of note

Texas Tech at Texas, Sept. 25: The first Big 12 game of the Sarkisian era is against one of the Longhorns’ rivals. Sonny Cumbie had success against Texas as TCU’s OC. Will that trend continue at Tech?

West Virginia at Baylor, Oct. 9: West Virginia won a double-overtime thriller last season. Baylor won by a field goal in 2019. Is another close game on the horizon?

Texas Tech at Kansas, Oct. 16: KU had a dreadful 2020, going winless. But the Jayhawks had a chance in the season finale at Texas Tech, falling 16-13. In fact, Tech is the only Big 12 team KU beat in 2019. If Tech falls to KU in Lawrence again, is Matt Wells as good as gone?

Oklahoma State at Texas Tech, Nov. 20: Yes, another Nov. 20 matchup. Expect this game to be another high-scoring affair. The last time the winning team scored fewer than 40 points? In 2010 when Oklahoma State won, 34-17.

TCU at Iowa State, Nov. 27: TCU hasn’t won in Ames since 2015, but this matchup has been decided by one score more often than not. And, as it ends the regular season, a trip to the Big 12 title game could be on the line.

Baseball buzz

The State Farm College Baseball Showdown set for Feb. 19-21 at Globe Life Field has been a hit so far with fans.

Tickets for the event featuring six of the top 10 teams in the country from the Big 12 and SEC have been going fast. The Rangers announced this week that the Saturday session has been sold out, and only limited tickets remain for Friday and Sunday. Tickets are priced at $25 for adults and $15 for youth 13 and under.

Each ticket is good for admission to the three baseball games that day. First-pitch times are 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Hoops talk

The Big 12 basketball tournaments remain on schedule for next month in Kansas City.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told The Dallas Morning News this week, “The planning is going forward. We’re still in two venues. We still don’t know the exact attendance. We know we can have some sort of family-and-friends package, and we expect there will be something available to the general public and to the schools, but those numbers are still in flux.”

As close as the tournaments feel, there’s still a lot of time between now and March 10 and 11, when the men’s and women’s conference championships are scheduled to tip off. As of now, Bowlsby said, no programs have discussed opting out.

Nearing .500

The TCU women’s basketball team isn’t having a banner year like last season, but picked up a nice win on Wednesday night.

The Frogs rallied from a five-point halftime deficit and used a 28-15 third quarter to pull away for a convincing 78-67 victory over K-State. The Frogs are now 8-9 on the season, and 3-9 in Big 12 play.

TCU will look to win its first game on the road this season when it travels to Iowa State (12-8, 8-5) on Saturday.

Speaking of upcoming games, the Big 12 announced rescheduled dates for a couple TCU women’s games that had been postponed. The Frogs will play at K-State on March 1 (originally scheduled for Jan. 9), and at Oklahoma on March 4 (originally scheduled for Jan. 14).