BYU Hosts Baylor Saturday: 1:30 p.m. Kickoff on FOX and an Interim Coach Across the Field

BYU's next game now has a time and a network. The Cougars host Baylor at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, with kickoff at 1:30 p.m. MST on FOX. BYU is 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12 after a 28-20 loss at Utah. Baylor arrives at 6-3 and 4-2 under an interim coach, Joe Klanderman, who took over when Dave Aranda was fired on Oct. 25. The Deseret News reports Baylor has not lost since the change.

We covered the game itself in our Utah 28, BYU 20 recap and the standings picture in BYU's playoff and Big 12 title outlook. That outlook was written before kickoff and TV were set. This article covers what is new this week.

What is now confirmed

When we wrote our outlook on Nov. 8, BYU Athletics listed the time and network for the Baylor game as to be announced. As of Nov. 9, the football schedule page on byucougars.com lists the game at 1:30 p.m. MST on FOX at LaVell Edwards Stadium, with BYUradio as the radio carrier. The Deseret News preview gives the same kickoff and network and adds the radio dial positions, 102.7 FM and 1160 AM. Baylor's athletics site also posted a headline on Nov. 8 saying its kickoff time at BYU had been announced, but we could read only the headline, so we are relying on BYU's page and the Deseret News for the details.

BYU's schedule page still lists the next two games, at Kansas on Nov. 21 and home against Cincinnati on Nov. 28, with times and networks to be announced. Anyone planning travel around those dates should wait for the announcements. Our Baylor game-week guide warned that November times are often set on short notice, and that is what happened here.

Why a 1:30 p.m. start matters

A mid-afternoon start is friendlier than the evening windows BYU has seen this season, but it is not an early one. Fans who want a free lot or a tailgate spot will want to arrive hours ahead, and the reserved Cougar Club lots open four hours before kickoff, according to our parking guide. That puts the gates of the reserved lots at about 9:30 a.m. The tailgate lot opens at 8 a.m. on home game days, per the same guide. We have not seen a published forecast for Saturday, so we are not offering a weather outlook. Check the National Weather Service forecast for Provo later in the week, and read the earlier game-week guide for the general advice on November layering.

Baylor under Joe Klanderman

Baylor fired Dave Aranda on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, after seven seasons, according to a report by KBTX that credits ESPN's Pete Thamel with breaking the news. The decision followed back-to-back Big 12 losses, 17-6 at home to TCU and 25-24 at Kansas, and left Baylor 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the league. Aranda finished 40-40 at Baylor. Athletic director Doug McNamee called him "a gifted coach and a brilliant football mind" and said the school believed "a change in leadership is necessary at this time for our program."

Klanderman, the defensive coordinator, was named interim head coach for the rest of the season. His first game was a Friday night trip to UCF, the team that had just upset BYU. The Deseret News preview says Baylor has not lost since. Baylor was 4-3 at the time of the change and is 6-3 now, so the arithmetic points to two wins, but we did not confirm the scores of those games and we are not going to describe them. The preview does not give details about the interim staff or how Baylor's approach has changed, and neither do we.

What the record does tell fans is that this is not a team in free fall. Baylor is 4-2 in Big 12 play, the same conference mark as BYU, Houston, Arizona and Oklahoma State, per the Deseret News standings. A team with that record, is a reasonable thing for BYU to be wary of the week after a hard loss.

The stakes for BYU

The Deseret News frames the Baylor game as close to a must-win. A loss would, in its words, effectively end BYU's College Football Playoff hopes, and it would raise the risk of a third straight mid-level bowl, naming the Pop-Tarts and Alamo bowls as examples.

The Big 12 title path, as the Deseret News lays it out, has three parts. BYU has to win out. Texas Tech, which is 5-1 in the league, has to lose at least one of its last three games, which are at Oklahoma State, at Baylor and home against TCU. Houston, at 4-2 in the league and 7-2 overall, also has to lose again, because the paper says Houston usually wins tiebreakers against other two-loss teams. We are relaying the paper's reasoning here, not the tiebreaker rules themselves. Big 12 spokesman Matt Ensor said it was "still too early" to announce tiebreaker scenarios, so check the Big 12 Conference's official site for the order of tiebreakers.

Note the Texas Tech schedule: one of the games BYU needs Texas Tech to lose is at Baylor. Baylor's result against BYU on Saturday and its game against Texas Tech later are linked in the standings, which makes Baylor's season matter to the Cougars beyond this week.

Rankings and what comes next

BYU was No. 7 in the AP poll before the Utah game and dropped five spots to No. 12 in the poll released Sunday, the Deseret News reports. It was No. 9 in the first College Football Playoff rankings on Nov. 3. The next CFP rankings come out Tuesday, and the final rankings are released Dec. 6. Utah is 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the Big 12 and sits atop the league standings.

The Deseret News also lays out an at-large path that depends on Notre Dame staying unbeaten and several teams ahead of BYU losing more than once. Notre Dame fell 28-24 at BYU on Oct. 17, and its remaining games are against Boston College, SMU and Syracuse, according to that report.

After Baylor, BYU goes to Kansas (3-6 overall, 1-5 in the Big 12) on Nov. 21 and then hosts Cincinnati (5-4, 2-4) on Nov. 28. The Deseret News notes that Cincinnati beat Texas Tech and nearly upset Houston before losing 31-24 to BYU, which is a reminder that those two games are not automatic either.

What fans should plan for Saturday

Tickets. If you are buying or reselling, our BYU football tickets guide explains how the ticket system works. We did not find a published sellout notice for this game, so check BYU's ticket office for current availability before relying on a resale listing.

Parking and traffic. Our parking and traffic guide lists the free and paid lots, the Tailgate Lot, disability parking and the UVX bus option. It notes that UVX is free only with a qualifying BYU or UVU student ID and that everyone else pays the standard fare. BYU publishes the official parking map and prices at les.byucougars.com. The guide's advice for an ordinary conference game is to arrive two to three hours before kickoff. For a 1:30 p.m. start, that means being parked between roughly 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. The guide also suggests lingering after the game rather than racing to the car, since the first 30 to 45 minutes after the final whistle are the worst of the traffic.

Game day. For the stadium itself, the bag rule and what to expect inside, see our BYU football game day guide and LaVell Edwards Stadium guide. Visiting Baylor fans can start with our Big 12 fan's guide to Provo.

Watching elsewhere. The game is on FOX, so any place that carries the network should have it. Our list of where to watch sports in Provo is a starting point. Call ahead for a table, since a late-season game with playoff stakes tends to fill sports bars and restaurants.

What we could not confirm

We could not read the full text of Baylor's kickoff announcement, so we do not know whether it adds anything beyond the time and network. We could not verify the results of Baylor's games since Oct. 25 beyond the Deseret News statement that the team has not lost. We did not find a published weather forecast for Saturday, a sellout announcement, or an official Big 12 tiebreaker breakdown. The records, rankings and title scenarios above come from the Deseret News preview and may change after Tuesday's CFP rankings.

Related

• Utah 28, BYU 20: the game recap
• BYU's playoff and Big 12 title outlook after the Utah loss
• BYU vs. Baylor game-week guide
• BYU football parking
• BYU football tickets guide
• Where to watch sports in Provo