2023 Baylor Bears football team
The 2023 Baylor Bears football team represent Baylor University in the Big 12 Conference during the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Bears are led by Dave Aranda in his fourth season as their head coach. Baylor was picked sixth out of 14 teams in the preseason media poll of the conference. It was not ranked in the national top 25 polls of media or coaches, though the team did receive some votes. The Bears play eight of their 12 regular season games at home, the largest number in school history and the most home games in the NCAA FBS this year, along with Penn State, Arizona State and Mississippi State. This is the first season with Big 12 membership at 14 teams, after the realignment upheaval of the preceding years, which saw the league add four teams (BYU, UCF, Houston and Cincinnati). Consequently, the football schedule is no longer a "round robin" in which every team plays every other team, as was the practice when the league had 10 teams. The league continues to play nine intra-conference games; therefore, the Bears will not in 2023 play Kansas State, Kansas, Oklahoma State or Oklahoma, which (along with Texas) is in its final year with the league before moving to the SEC. The Bears play all four newcomers. Five Baylor players were named to national preseason watch lists for the following awards:

Richard Reese, Maxwell Award, Doak Walker Award and Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award
Gabe Hall, Bronko Nagurski Trophy
Clark Barrington,  Rimington Trophy
Blake Shapen, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
Alonzo Allen, Wuerffel Trophy

The Bears play their home games at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas, its 10th year of hosting play. Schedule

Game summaries

vs. Texas State

vs. Utah

vs. LIU

vs. Texas

at UCF

vs. Texas Tech

at Cincinnati

vs. Iowa State

Rankings

References

Baylor
Baylor Bears football seasons
Baylor Bears football