Big 12 early season kickoff times announced for 2024

The Big 12 Conference revealed the kickoff times for the majority of the early season football schedule on Thursday, along with times for several other featured games throughout the year.

Notably, it includes most games in Weeks 1-3, plus eight different Friday nights featuring Big 12 programs.

The Kansas Jayhawks will play on three different days of the week in their first three weeks of the season. KU will host the Lindenwood Lions, an FCS program, in their opener at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29. That game will be televised on ESPN+. The first Saturday game for the Jayhawks will be on Sept. 7 when they visit the Illinois Fighting Illini for a 6:00 p.m. kickoff on FS1. Week 3 will feature a Guaranteed Rate Bowl rematch between Kansas and the UNLV Rebels on Friday, Sept. 13 at 6:00 p.m. That game will be shown on ESPN.

Both home games in that stretch for KU will be played at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, the home of Sporting Kansas City. The Jayhawks’ other home games this season will be played at Arrowhead Stadium.

As for the Kansas State Wildcats, they’ll open the season with a pair of Saturday games. K-State will host the UT-Martin Skyhawks at 6:00 p.m. on Aug. 31 in their opener, followed by an 11:00 a.m. kickoff one week later on the road against the Tulane Green Wave. The UT-Martin game will be shown on ESPN+, while the Tulane tilt will be on either ESPN or ESPN2.

It will then be a Friday-night battle of Wildcats in Week 3 when K-State hosts a Big 12 newcomer, the Arizona Wildcats. That game will count as a nonconference game to fulfill a previous scheduling arrangement, and it will be televised on FOX.

Friday-night games will be commonplace across the Big 12 this season. Thirteen teams will play at least one game on a Friday this season, only excluding the Baylor Bears, Texas Tech Red Raiders and West Virginia Mountaineers.

For the full list of kickoff times the Big 12 announced this week, click here.

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