Big 12 Unveils 2025‑26 Schedule Matrix—Lady Raiders Draw Heavyweight Home‑and‑Home Series With Baylor, Houston and Kansas

The Big 12 Conference pulled back the curtain on next season’s women’s‑basketball scheduling matrix Thursday morning, and Texas Tech’s path through an ever‑deeper league is anything but gentle. Head coach Krista Gerlich’s Lady Raiders landed three of the conference’s most recognizable brands—Baylor, Houston and Kansas—as their lone home‑and‑away opponents in 2025‑26. That means six head‑to‑head meetings with programs that have combined for 23 NCAA Tournament appearances in the past decade, all crammed into an 18‑game Big 12 slate that already tests travel endurance and roster depth.

Beginning last season, the expanded, 16‑team Big 12 trimmed its women’s schedule from 20 league games to 18. Each school now plays three opponents twice and faces the other 12 once—six at home, six on the road. Conference administrators say the matrix is designed to balance competitive equity with travel logistics, especially after adding Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah in 2024. For the Lady Raiders, the new structure brings marquee rivalries to Lubbock while tossing them into altitude (BYU, Utah) and Eastern‑time (West Virginia, Cincinnati) road trips that weren’t on the map two years ago.

Texas Tech’s 2024‑25 campaign finished 19‑18 overall and included a spirited march to the WNIT quarterfinals—its deepest postseason push since 2013. Gerlich’s bunch did it despite a 4‑14 league record, proving the roster could trade blows with anyone outside the Big 12 meat‑grinder. That progress sets a higher bar for 2025‑26, when the rotation returns versatile 6‑2 guard‑forward Jalynn Bristow, senior playmaker Gemma Núñez, sweet‑shooting wing Adlee Blacklock, and rim‑protector Sarengbé Sanogo, among others.

Baylor remains the league’s gold standard, having reached 21 straight NCAA tournaments before a surprise Round‑of‑32 exit this March. New head coach Tony Greene leans on suffocating defense and a power‑post game that historically punishes Tech’s smaller frontcourts.

Houston, fresh off its first Sweet 16 since joining the Big 12, returns dynamic scoring guard Skylar Blake and transfers in 6‑4 shot‑blocker Layla O’Neal. The Cougars already edged Tech twice last winter; payback opportunities loom in both Houston and Lubbock.

Kansas is the wild card: Jory Collins’ Jayhawks surged from 12th to sixth in the league standings last year behind sharpshooter Jamari Poole. Kansas now gets two shots to prove that leap was no fluke; Tech gets two shots to prove it was.

Beyond the trio of double‑ups, Tech hosts Arizona, Arizona State, UCF, Iowa State, Kansas State and TCU for single meetings. The cross‑desert showdowns with Arizona and ASU will mark the programs’ first trips to Lubbock as conference foes, guaranteeing high‑profile ticket pushes and national‑stream exposure on Big 12 Now. UCF’s track‑meet tempo, Iowa State’s three‑point barrage, and TCU’s bruising front line all promise contrasting chess matches in West Texas. With last year’s average attendance up eight percent, Gerlich is banking on raucous home crowds to flip at least four of those six into the win column.

The single‑site road slate is just as unforgiving: BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Utah and West Virginia. Two swing trips—notably the Salt Lake/Provo Rocky‑Mountain tandem and a late‑January loop through Morgantown and Cincinnati—could stretch three time zones in five days. Conditioning coach Christian Lee has already begun tweaking rest‑and‑recovery protocols that helped the Lady Raiders finish 6‑3 in games decided by six points or fewer last season. Success away from Lubbock likely determines whether Tech is jockeying for a top‑six Big 12 seed or sweating the bubble in March.

To tackle that travel, depth is paramount, and Gerlich moved quickly in the portal. Ole Miss transfer Snudda Collins, a 6‑1 guard with 117 career treys, adds perimeter pop. Freshman point guard Kalysta “Bird” Martin impressed during the Red‑Black spring scrimmage, flashing the off‑the‑dribble burst Tech often lacked once Núñez rested. Coaches also expect sophomore forward Julie Nekolná to shoulder more of the rebounding load after adding 15 pounds in the high‑performance lab. Summer practices will emphasize transition defense—Tech surrendered 14.2 fast‑break points per game, worst in the league—while offensive sets grow around Bristow’s mid‑post versatility and Collins’ spot‑up shooting.

The road to the NCAA Tournament still funnels through the 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, slated for March 10‑14 at the T‑Mobile Center in Kansas City. Texas Tech hasn’t tasted the conference semifinals since 2011, but Gerlich, now entering Year 6 at her alma mater, insists the new‑look roster is built for the multiple‑day grind. “Our depth and versatility give us a chance to survive back‑to‑back styles,” she said in Thursday’s release, noting that the Big 12’s compact 18‑game schedule should leave fresher legs for March. With six high‑profile showdowns against Baylor, Houston and Kansas on tap—and a revamped supporting cast to match—Tech’s postseason destiny will likely crystallize long before the bracket committee convenes. But if the Lady Raiders can hold serve at home, steal two or three on the road, and weather the mid‑January gauntlet, Lubbock could be on track for its first NCAA ticket in more than a decade.