Big Ten Football reveals new schedule for 18-team league, including newcomers

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The Big Ten Conference announced a new 18-team league schedule for the 2024-2028 football seasons on Thursday. This marks the official inclusion of new members like the USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins, Oregon Ducks and Washington Huskies.

The new schedule ensures that each Big Ten school will play every conference opponent at least twice, at home and away, within five years. Additionally, teams will face rotating opponents only three times in five years.

Several adjustments were made to the schedule. For example, the Ohio State Buckeyes now face only two scheduled home opponents (Michigan Wolverines and Iowa Hawkeyes) and two initial road opponents (Michigan State Spartans and Penn State Nittany Lions). Ohio State will also visit Oregon instead of UCLA.

With the updated schedules, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti expressed his excitement about the games.

“You look at it, and you see the quality of the matchups,” Petitti said. “We just couldn’t be more excited about what you see on paper, what it really looks like.”

The tiebreaking rules for the Big Ten championship game and the dates of the games for the 2024 season will be determined later. Notably, the first season of the 18-team Big Ten coincides with the debut of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

Big Ten maintains core concepts

Big Ten officials considered 262 schedule models before deciding on the new schedules.

They retained the “flex protect” model introduced in June, preserving an annual rivalry of Oregon vs. Washington and existing rivalries like Illinois vs. Northwestern. In total, the Big Ten has scheduled 405 games for the next five years.

“The core concepts are still in place here,” Petitti said. “We feel really good about where we landed.”

Big Ten COO Kerry Kenny called the process “a whirlwind eight weeks.” Kenny explained that the conference structured the league for competitive balance by dividing it into different-sized groups. The league worked closely with schools and consultant Kevin Pauga after Oregon and Washington joined the league in early August.