The Pac-12 has released the 2012 football schedule. Once again, Utah will play the first game of the year, an opener against a lower-division foe, as Northern Colorado will visit Rice Eccles on the last Thursday of August. For the first time ever, all the games will be nationally televised this year.

One obvious highlight to the schedule is a Thursday night home game with USC, which will likely be featured on a prime ESPN or Fox channel. Utah and USC both have a bye week before the game, so there should be a lot of buildup coming into it.

Utah's schedule is as follows:

Thur., Aug. 30 - Northern Colorado at Utah

Sat. Sept. 8 - Utah at Utah State

Sat., Sept. 15 - BYU at Utah

Sat., Sept. 22 - Utah at Arizona State

Thurs., Oct. 4 - USC at Utah

Sat., Oct. 13 - Utah at UCLA

Sat., Oct. 20 - Utah at Oregon State

Sat., Oct. 27 - California at Utah

Sat., Nov. 3 - Washington State at Utah

Sat., Nov. 10 - Utah at Washington

Sat., Nov. 17 - Arizona at Utah

Fri., Nov. 23 - Utah at Colorado

The Pac-12 Championship Game will be Friday, Nov. 30