On Saturday evening, no. 11 BYU will play on the road at Colorado State. BYU is 1 of just 10 10 Power Four schools that will travel to play a true road game against a Group of Six school in 2026. Here is the comprehensive list of P4 teams playing on the road against G6 foes in 2026.
- Arizona @ Washington State
- BYU @ Colorado State
- Cal @ UNLV
- Houston @ Georgia Southern
- Maryland @ UConn
- North Carolina @ UConn
- Oklahoma State @ Tulsa
- Penn State @ Temple
- Syracuse @ UConn
- Texas Tech @ Oregon State
That list gets smaller when you consider that Texas Tech's game at Oregon State was scheduled when the Beavers were a P4 team. Additionally, Arizona's game at Washington State was scheduled because both schools needed a non-conference game when the Pac-12 crumbled.
BYU stands alone as the only Power Four team playing a true road game against a Group of Six team for the third consecutive season. The Cougars played on the road at Wyoming in 2024, then they played at East Carolina in 2025. The third and final leg of this three-year G6 road tour will be played at Colorado State.
BYU hasn't been burned by its scheduling practices yet, but it's a dangerous gamble that BYU is taking by playing so many road games against G6 teams.
Since 2021, nine P4 programs have played G6 teams on the road in three consecutive seasons: BYU, Boston College, Duke, Kansas, Stanford, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.
Excluding BYU, who is the only team that is yet to finish its three-game stand, Wake Forest is the only team to escape those 3+ games undefeated, and the Demon Deacons needed to win two games by just three points. Every other team on the list lost at least one of their road games against G6 schools. A handful of them lost multiple games.
BYU is good enough to beat Colorado State. The Cougars are the better team and they should take care of business in Fort Collins. Results aside, this was a dangerou scheduling tactic, and now BYU is just trying to avoid getting burned. There is little upside to a matchup like this – that's just the reality BYU is living in as a member of the Big 12.
BYU beat a good ECU team soundily on the road last season, and nobody in the national media or, more importantly, on the playoff committee gave the Cougars credit for that win. The upside, frankly, does not outweigh the risk.
It appears that BYU is trying to avoid games like this in the future. The Cougars moved their game at Oregon State to a neutral site game in Vegas. If you are familiar with BYU fans and how well they travel to Vegas, you know that will be a BYU crowd.
The only true road game agaisnt a G6 team on the future schedule is BYU's road game at NIU in 2030. It remains to be seen if BYU will buy out of that game or not. BYU has the luxury of being in a Power Four league now, and that includes buying out games like the one scheduled at NIU in a few years.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/byu as BYU's Three-Year G6 Road Tour was a Dangerous Gamble – the Cougars Are Trying to Escape Unscathed.