Ranking Big 12 Football Week Three Games by Competitiveness

The Big 12 Conference is preparing for the 2025 football season and the third week of the football schedule gets us a little closer to conference play.

Week 3 brings the second conference game of the season, along with a pseudo-conference game as a former Pac-12 program wraps up its home-and-home with Kansas State that was agreed to like a half-dozen year ago or something like that.

Four teams are off during Week 3 — BYU, Kansas, UCF and Oklahoma State. All get their first bye before they dive into Big 12 play the following week. In fact, Week 3, for many teams, is the end of non-conference action.

Each week at Heartland College Sports I am ranking the schedule for each week of the 2025 football season from least competitive to most competitive. So, let’s dig into Week 3.  

Northwestern State at Cincinnati

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

The Demons went 0-12 last year. The Bearcats better win this by a lot or bad things could be on the way this season.

Samford at Baylor

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

Samford is typically a good FCS program. But the Bulldogs were down last year, and Baylor tends to take care of FCS teams at home with relative ease.

Texas State at Arizona State

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

ASU hadn’t found itself when the pair played in San Marcos, Texas, and the Sun Devils only won by three points. It will be a different game in Tempe.

Abilene Christian at TCU

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

ACU nearly upset Texas Tech at home. The Wildcats reached the second round of the FCS playoffs. Expect this to be more competitive than you might expect. But they won’t sneak up on TCU.

Utah at Wyoming

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

Both were bad last year. Wyoming can play Big 12 teams well at home (see Texas Tech). But the Cowboys lost to BYU by 20 in Laramie last year. That feels like the baseline for this game.

Kansas State at Arizona

When: Friday, Sept. 12

I thought this game would be highly competitive last year. It was not. I don’t believe Arizona has gotten much better. I know Kansas State is at least as good as a season ago.

Oregon State at Texas Tech

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

The Beavers went 5-7 a year ago. OSU didn’t beat a power conference opponent on the road. Tech “should” be able to handle this one.

Colorado at Houston*

When: Friday, Sept. 12

The first Big 12 game stateside pits a Colorado team in transition against a Houston team looking to make a splash. Having the game in Houston helps. Expect it to be closer than outsiders will predict.

Iowa State at Arkansas State

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

Give Iowa State credit for going to a Group of 5 school. It didn’t work out so well last time (see Ohio). A-State went 8-5 last season. This could be a stealthily good game.

Pittsburgh at West Virginia

When: Saturday, Sept. 13

I was at this game last year. Both teams were average but didn’t play like it in the “Backyard Brawl.” Per fbschedules.com, the game is not set to be played again until 2029. Plus, Rich Rodriguez is back. If you can’t get to Milan Puskar Stadium, at least get to a TV. It will be the week’s most competitive game.