Baylor is coming off a 5-7 disaster and needs every rep it can get before Big 12 play starts. Prairie View A&M is walking into McLane Stadium as defending SWAC champs, but a $400,000 check is the real prize here.
+Talent/depth edge should show up big against FCS foe
−Coming off disastrous 5-7 season, no bowl
−Lost starting QB Robertson plus TE Trigg, top receivers
−Still without an offensive line coach
This is a guarantee game in the truest sense: Prairie View A&M banks $400,000 for the trip to Waco, and Baylor gets a tune-up before the Big 12 grind starts. The Panthers aren't just cashing a check, though. They're 11-3, defending SWAC champions, and they made a Celebration Bowl appearance behind SWAC Coach of the Year Tremaine Jackson. Baylor, meanwhile, is trying to put a 5-7 season that ended its bowl streak in the rearview.
The headline for Baylor is the quarterback change. Sawyer Robertson is gone after throwing for 3,681 yards and 31 touchdowns in 2025, and the Bears turned to the transfer portal for his replacement: DJ Lagway, in from Florida, where he went 10-9 as a starter. It's a name-brand arrival for a Baylor offense that also lost tight end Michael Trigg and a chunk of its receiver room. September 12 is early enough in the year that Lagway should still be finding his footing with new weapons, and this is about as low-risk a setting as it gets to do that.
Prairie View A&M isn't walking in blind to the size of this jump. Playing a Power Five program on the road is part of the SWAC champion's price of admission most years, and the Panthers get a game against Tarleton State and SWAC rival Texas Southern first to shake off the rust. Still, nothing in their FCS slate prepares them for the sheer roster depth Baylor can throw at them, especially with a Big 12 program that has every incentive to build confidence fast.
Baylor's bigger issue isn't the opponent on September 12, it's everything around this game. The Bears are reportedly still without an offensive line coach after a midseason departure last year, and a 5-7 season that Baylor insiders have already called disastrous means there's real pressure to open the year clean. A home game against an FCS opponent, even a good one, is exactly the kind of spot a staff needs to look sharp in before facing real Big 12 competition.
For Prairie View A&M, this is about validation as much as the payout. Jackson's group beat Jackson State on the road last season to punch a Celebration Bowl ticket, so they're not short on confidence heading into a marquee non-conference date. But talent gaps like this one rarely close, and the Panthers' path to competing likely runs through turnovers and special teams rather than trading scores possession for possession.
Circle this one as a measuring-stick game for Baylor's new-look offense more than a genuine contest. If Lagway and the rebuilt skill groups look comfortable against Prairie View A&M, it's a small but real signal for a Bears team with plenty to prove after last year. If they don't, it's a much louder alarm with Big 12 season bearing down.
