There is no margin for error
The beauty of the non-conference portion of the schedule for teams without national title aspirations (like Tech), is that you can afford a slip-up and still have a strong season. But if every game is a Big 12 contest, every team had better hit the ground running.
Mathematically, every game in a 9-game season is 11.1% of the season. In a 12-game season, every game is 8.3% of the season meaning that a loss is less devastating.
Think also about what happens if Tech gets off to a slow start. After all, the Red Raiders will be underdogs in two of the first three games (@ Iowa State, vs. West Virginia, vs. Baylor). Stumble out of the blocks to a 1-2 record or even an 0-3 mark and there is little time to work your way back into the mix for a respectable season with a third of the schedule already gone.
We haven’t seen Tech open the schedule against a Big 12 team since the first Big 12 game ever. In 1996, the Red Raiders traveled to Manhattan, Kansas to take on Kansas State only to lose 21-14.
But without non-conference games, the Red Raiders will have to open the season on the road by facing the team that many are predicting to be in the Big 12 title game. That’s not an ideal way to get a season underway.