Horned Frogs open Big 12 play vs. defending league champion Arizona State

You may now begin planning your fall weekends. The Big 12 held a schedule release event for the 2025 season on Tuesday morning, revealing the schedule across its multiple television partners. Following an encouraging finish to the 2024 campaign, culminating with a New Mexico Bowl victory, the TCU Football is looking to take another step forward towards conference and national contention in 2025. Here is how the 2025 schedule is set for the Horned Frogs:

TCU Horned Frogs 2025 Football Schedule

Week 1: Mon. Sept. 1 at North Carolina Tar Heels, Chapel Hill, NC

The Frogs are once again on the other side of the debut game for the most talked about new coaching hire in all of football. UNC brought in legendary former NFL coach Bill Belichick to take over the program after a 6-7 that ended with a loss to UConn in the Fenway Bowl. The Frogs get the primetime Labor Day slot with an opportunity to spoil Coach Belichick’s collegiate debut.

Week 2: BYE WEEK

Taking an off week this early in the season, ahead of the FCS game on your schedule, is less than ideal, however this does allow the Frogs to avoid what would have been a short week following the Monday match up to open the season.

Week 3: Sat. Sept. 13 vs. Abilene Christian Wildcats, Fort Worth, TX

A Division I program for over a decade now, ACU has found major success since Keith Patterson took over as head coach in 2022. The Wildcats were co-champions of the WAC in 2022 before winning the UAC outright last season to reach the FCS Playoffs for the first time in program history, defeating Northern Arizona in the first round before falling to eventual National Champion North Dakota State in the second round. As FCS games go, this will be one of the more challenging TCU has faced since playing South Dakota State in 2016.

Week 4: Sat. Sept. 20 vs. SMU Mustangs, Fort Worth, TX

Well folks this is it, the 104th Battle for the Iron Skillet is set to be the final matchup between Metroplex rivals. While new TCU Athletics Director Mike Buddie may have a different view on the value of this game than his predecessor, there is little path to this game returning to the schedule any time soon following 2025. SMU will enter Amon G. Carter Stadium coming off an historic first season in the ACC that saw it participate in the first ever 12-team Playoff. Despite TCU dominating the series over the last several decades, the Mustangs embarrassed the Frogs in Dallas last year. Expect the emotions to be running high again as some program will earn a long-term scoreboard ownership over the other.

Week 5: Sat. Sept. 27 at Arizona State Sun Devils, Tempe, AZ

TCU will battle 2024 Playoff participants in consecutive weeks. It is TCU’s first vs. the recent Big 12 addition and the first matchup between the programs in 50 years. Arizona State had a remarkable 2024 under Kenny Dillingham, projected very last in the conference, the Sun Devils won the Big 12 Championship and took Texas to the brink in an overtime Playoff thriller. Superstar RB Cam Skattebo is off to the NFL, but the Devils brought in Army 1,000+ yard rusher Kanye Udoh and return likely preseason All-Big 12 QB Sam Leavitt for a Big 12 Title-defending campaign in 2025.

Week 6: Sat. Oct. 4 vs. Colorado Buffaloes, Fort Worth, TX

The team Coach Prime will bring to Fort Worth in 2025 is vastly different than the one that shocked the Frogs to open the 2023 season. Superhuman Heisman Trophy Winner Travis Hunter and potential No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick QB Shedeur Sanders are gone, but the Buffs have brought in talented guys across the roster. The Kaidon Salter vs. Julian Lewis battle for QB1 is one of the most intriguing stories of the offseason. The spotlight is sure to follow this program wherever it goes.

Week 7: Sat. Oct. 11 at Kansas State Wildcats, Manhattan, KS

Will Howard is a National Champion, unfortunately for K-State fans it was achieved with Ohio State rather than in a Wildcats uniform. With Avery Johnson as the hair apparent at QB, KSU was projected atop the league but ended up finishing 8th with a 5-4 Big 12 record last season. Despite the disappointment of 2024 the ‘Cats won’t be down for long and this road trip is set as perhaps the toughest test on TCU’s schedule.

Week 8: Sat. Oct. 18 vs. Baylor Bears, Fort Worth, TX

The Big 12 has protected The Revivalry as a prestige annual rivalry contest, yet refuse to position the game on rivalry weekend at the end of the season. Last season Baylor picked up just its second win in the last decade, another dramatic finish of the heated rivalry. Bears QB Sawyer Robertson had a breakout year and is a contender to be the top passer in the league in 2025.

Week 9: Sat. Oct. 25 at West Virginia Mountaineers, Morgantown, WV

The Horned Frogs close a brutal stretch of its schedule with a trip to perhaps the conference’s toughest road environment, where TCU seems to also find a dramatic contest. Although star RB CJ Donaldson has transferred to Ohio State, the Mountaineers return the league’s top running QB in Garrett Greene and RB Jaheim White who each rushed for over 750 yards last season.

Week 10: BYE WEEK

And breathe. The long stretch of strong opponents from Week 4 through Week 9 finally here gives TCU a break. Coming off of the tough road trip, a November Bye will be just what the doctor ordered ahead of a closing stretch of four games that the Frogs will feel are must-wins to achieve the goals of the season.

Week 11: Sat. Nov. 8 vs. Iowa State Cyclones, Fort Worth, TX

It was a historic season for the Cyclones in 2024, reaching the Big 12 Championship Game and earning 11 wins for the first time in program history. While ISU loses a pair of Senior Bowl wide receivers, QB Rocco Becht returns to lead the offense after finishing third in the conference in pass yardage last year. If Matt Campbell and crew can meet or exceed the success of 2024 it likely means a win in Amon G. Carter Stadium, a place where the Cyclones last won in 2020.

Week 12: Sat. Nov. 15 at BYU Cougars, Provo, UT

TCU makes its first visit to Provo since 2009 when College GameDay was broadcasting from outside LaVell Edwards Stadium before Andy Dalton eviscerated the Cougars with and #8 TCU walked out with the 38-7 win over #16 BYU. In 2024, the Cougars fall on the wrong side of the tie breakers at the top of the Big 12 and were denied entry to the conference title game and CFP despite sporting an impressive at-large resume. Coming off a dominant Alamo Bowl win over Colorado and returning significant production from that talented team, including QB Jake Retzlaff, BYU will be projected to contend again this season

Week 13: Sat. Nov. 22 at Houston Cougars, Houston, TX

Houston brought the Horned Frogs to one of its lowest points in decades with its 30-19 win in Amon G. Carter Stadium last season as QB Zeon Chriss diced up a hapless TCU defense and Josh Hoover tossed two brutal interceptions for one of Houston’s four wins on the year. Now in the second season under Willie Fritz, the Cougars will be expected to take another step forward as a bowl contender while the Frogs hope to exact some revenge in H-Town.

Week 14: Sat. Nov. 29 vs. Cincinnati Bearcats, Fort Worth, TX

The Bearcats haven’t been to Fort Worth since a 2003 beat down served by a Top 10 TCU team. The Frogs handled snowy Cincinnati in 2024, escaping with a narrow win and will again close the regular season with the Bearcats. Cinci improved in its second season in the Big 12, but is still poking for its first bowl bid under Scott Satterfield.

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This will be a challenging slate for the Horned Frogs. The schedule difficulty is increased from last year and the Horned Frogs will need to show improvement to come out of this schedule in position to compete for a spot in Arlington for the Big 12 Championship. TCU is one of just two teams nationally to play 11 Power 4 games, six of which come on the road. Of those road trips, the Frogs have two Big 12 mountain visits on opposite sides of the country, with the November date in Provo sure to have some cold weather impact. TCU has two games vs. 2024 CFP participants, coming in consecutive weeks including the Big 12 opener vs. the defending Big 12 champ. With key returning connection of QB Josh Hoover and WR Eric McAlister to lead the offense with the vast experience of S Bud Clark and LB Namdi Obiazor patrolling on defense, TCU has hit a level in the development cycle to be expected to compete at the top of the league, even with a schedule that will provide difficult tests.

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With the full Big 12 schedule released, which teams have the toughest and easiest paths to the Conference Championship game? Did the schedule makers make life especially hard on anyone in the first year of this unique conference schedule? Who will win the Big 12 in 2024?