The return season in the Big 12 Conference will begin at home for the Colorado men’s basketball team.

On Thursday, the Big 12 announced its 2024-25 conference slate, with the Buffaloes playing on the Big 12’s opening night of Dec. 30 at the CU Events Center against Iowa State.

The Buffs announced their nonconference schedule two months ago, and the Big 12 previously announced the home-road pairings for the 2024-25 season. Thursday’s announcement sets the game dates, although tipoff times and television info still will be announced at a later date.

Unlike the Pac-12, where the Buffs typically went through two-game weekend trips to Arizona, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Oregon and Washington, the Big 12 scheduling format features far more single-game trips. For instance, the Buffs’ first Big 12 road game will be at Arizona State on Jan. 4, but they return to the state three weeks later to face Arizona in Tucson. Same with the Kansas schools, as CU plays at KU on Feb. 11 and at Kansas State on March 2.

In the Pac-12, the Buffs never played a league game earlier in the week than on Wednesday, with most games scheduled in a Thursday-and-Saturday format. This year, CU will play two league games on Monday, four on Tuesday and four on Wednesday. The Buffs don’t play any conference games on a Thursday.

The Buffs will play three back-to-back road games with two full off-days in between — at Arizona State (Jan. 4) and UCF (Jan. 8); at TCU (Feb. 2) and Utah (Feb. 5); and at Kansas State (March 2) and Texas Tech (March 5). CU plays two sets of back-to-back Big 12 games at home, hosting West Virginia on Jan. 12 and Cincinnati on Jan. 15 before hosting Baylor (Feb. 22) and Kansas (Feb. 24) more than five weeks later.

After hosting Iowa State in the league opener, CU’s road matchup against the Cyclones on Feb. 18 will be the 150th matchup between the programs.

The 2024-25 season, CU’s 15th under head coach Tad Boyle, begins on Nov. 4 at home against Eastern Washington. The Buffs play eight of their 11 nonconference games at home, including a Dec. 7 date against Colorado State. CU also will play three games against a rugged field at the prestigious Maui Invitational, beginning with a battle against Michigan State on Nov. 25. The Buffs will play either Memphis or two-time defending national champion UConn the following day, with a final game on Nov. 27 against either Dayton, Auburn, North Carolina or Iowa State (which would be played as a nonconference game if the Buffs and Cyclones cross paths).

Notable

The Buffs also announced they will play an exhibition game against Division III Pomona-Pitzer on Oct. 19 at 3 p.m. at the Events Center. Pomona-Pitzer features Boyle’s second son, Pete, and the teams also met for an exhibition game ahead of the 2019-20 season when Boyle’s oldest son, Jack, was on the Pomona-Pitzer squad. … Mini ticket plans (that exclude the Kansas date) go on sale Oct. 3. Single-game ticket sales begin Oct. 8.