Big Ten announces new football scheduling model for 2024, 2025 seasons

College Football

Published Jun. 8, 2023 6:36 p.m. ET

The Big Ten Conference football schedule is going to look a lot different in 2024.

Conference matchups for the 2024 and 2025 seasons were announced Thursday, as the Big Ten adjusts for the addition of USC and UCLA in 2024, expanding the conference members to 16.

In its announcement, the Big Ten introduced a “Flex Protect Plus” model, which will include 11 protected rivalries and eliminate divisions. The new model maintains a nine-game Big Ten schedule and allows every conference matchup to take place at least twice in a four-year time period.

In the new model, Big Ten teams will play certain opponents in both 2024 and 2025, which are being referred to as “two plays.” Those “two play” opponents will change every two years.

The amount of protected rivalry matchups introduced in the new scheduling model varies among schools. Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Purdue, and Wisconsin will each have two protected rivalry games. Iowa is the only school that has three protected matchups, and Penn State is the only school that doesn’t have a protected rivalry game.

The protected games are as follows: Michigan-Ohio State, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Indiana-Purdue, Michigan State-Michigan, Iowa-Minnesota, Illinois-Northwestern, Iowa-Nebraska, Maryland–Rutgers, Iowa-Wisconsin, Illinois-Purdue and UCLA-USC.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti joined the Big Ten Network Thursday and was asked about the conference’s primary goals when putting together the updated schedule and determining protected rivalries.

“[It’s about] preserving some of the matchups that are important to Big Ten fans and making sure those matchups continue, especially with the integration of UCLA and USC,” Petitti said. “You want competitive balance, you want to respect history and tradition in the conference, and you want to connect fans.”

With nine conference games remaining on the schedule, eight teams will play five conference home games in 2024 and the other eight teams will play five conference home games in 2025. And with the decision to eliminate divisions, the top two teams in the conference standings at the end of the regular season will compete in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Big Ten has yet to announce tiebreaker scenarios.

USC’s first season in the Big Ten will include matchups at home against Michigan and Wisconsin, in addition to a road game at Penn State. The Trojans will travel to Ohio State in 2025.

UCLA will play both Michigan (on the road) and Ohio State (at home) in its first season in the Big Ten.

The game dates for the 2024 season will be announced later this year.

Here are each school’s protected rivals and “two-play opponents” (which are indicated in italics) for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Illinois

Northwestern

Ohio State

Purdue

Indiana

Maryland

Michigan State

Purdue

Iowa

Minnesota

Nebraska

Wisconsin

Maryland

Indiana

Michigan

Rutgers

Michigan