Colorado coach Tad Boyle says that all conference games are tough, despite size or competitiveness.

"The price of poker goes up," Boyle said. "It doesn't matter what league you're in. Big leagues, small leagues, it's all the same."

Typically, conference games are more physical.

"It becomes harder to score," Boyle said. "We're averaging 80-plus points per game. I hope we can continue to do that, but it's going to get harder for us to score against Big 12 teams. Because of that, we're going to have to make it harder for our opponents to score as well."