ORLANDO, Fla. — The date many UCF football fans have waited for since the program started in 1979 came Tuesday, when they got a look at the Knights as part of a Power 5 schedule for the first time.

The Big 12 publicly released its 2023 football schedules on Tuesday, and UCF’s first season in the conference will feature four league home games and five road games, including a meeting with Oklahoma and Knights former star quarterback Dillon Gabriel.

The home games will include Baylor, one of the only Big 12 teams they have played previously. The Knights beat the Bears in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl with Blake Bortles at quarterback. West Virginia and Oklahoma State will come to FBC Mortgage Stadium for the first time. Houston, which also is in its first Big 12 season after coming in from the American, also will come to Orlando.

The other road conference games are against Kansas State — another Big 12 team UCF has played, a 17-10 road loss in 2010 — Kansas and Texas Tech, longstanding Big 12 members, and Cincinnati, which is joining the league from the American along with UCF. The Knights this season will not face the Big 12 team that played in last season's College Football Championship, TCU, or Texas, which they lost to at home in their inaugural season in the on-campus stadium in 2007 and in Austin in 2009.

The Knights will start their season with Kent State, a road contest against Boise State and Villanova.

UCF 2023 Football Schedule

  • Aug. 31 vs. Kent State
  • Sept. 9 at Boise State
  • Sept. 16 vs. Villanova
  • Sept. 23 at Kansas State
  • Sept. 30 vs. Baylor
  • Oct. 7 at Kansas
  • Oct. 21 at Oklahoma
  • Oct. 28 vs. West Virginia
  • Nov. 4 at Cincinnati
  • Nov. 11 vs. Oklahoma State
  • Nov. 18 at Texas Tech
  • Nov. 25 vs. Houston

The Big 12 Championship Game is Dec. 2 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington Texas

The entire Big 12 schedule was announced Tuesday.

The conference won’t be the only change for the Knights in the upcoming season. In the offseason, defensive coordinator Travis Williams took the same job at Arkansas and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey now holds that role at North Carolina. Addison Williams, who previously coached the defensive backs, was promoted to defensive coordinator, and former UCF quarterback Darin Hinshaw was hired to call the offensive plays for the Knights.

The Knights also have been active in the transfer portal and on early signing day, with many players coming in and out.

On Monday, Stanford center Drake Metcalf announced he would transfer to UCF for its first season in the Big 12. He is an especially welcome addition after the Knights' starter for three seasons, Matt Lee, transferred to Miami in the offseason.

They also acquired five-star defensive lineman John Walker out of Osceola on early signing day in December.

Among the other players who announced they would transfer to UCF recently are offensive lineman Bula Schmidt. He is coming from Fresno State, where former Knights quarterback Mikey Keene transferred in the offseason after losing the starting job in 2022 to John Rhys Plumlee. Wide receivers Trent Whittemore out of Florida and Chauncey Magwood out of Kentucky also have said they are transferring to UCF. Those are just the most recent players to disclose their plans to transfer to UCF. The Knights are expected to make official the full list of transfers at National Signing Day on Wednesday.

In addition to Lee and Keene, the most notable Knights from last season's team to transfer were wide receiver Ryan O'Keefe (to Boston College) , linebacker Jeremiah Jean Baptiste (to Mississippi) and defensive back Davonte Brown (to Miami).

Fans can get an early look at the Knights' new roster at their annual Spring Game at 6:30 p.m. April 14.