BIG TEN ANNOUNCES CONFERENCE GAMES FOR 2024-2028 SEASONS

'Kevin Warren' Credit: Eleven Warriors Via Flickr

The Big Ten Conference has announced conference matchups for the 2024-2028 football seasons. The conference added Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC as members starting in the 2024 season. Each team will play a combination of four home games and five road games one season then five home games and four road games the following season. While the opponents are listed for each home and away game, the dates and times of the games will be announced at a later date.

The schedule was called the Flex Protect XVIII model in a statement released by The Big Ten this afternoon. The statement says the model “features a combination of protected opponents and rotating opponents for universities.” The conference ditched division play while ensuring that each team would play every other conference opponent at least twice during the five-year period, once at home and once away. No rotating opponents will be played more than three times during the five-year period.

The objectives listed by the Conference for the scheduling model include a balance of annual travel, creating access for programs to get into the expanded College Football Playoff, and a balance of historical and recent competitiveness.

The Big Ten also protected 12 rivalries throughout the conference that will continue to be played each year. The protected rivalries are Illinois-Northwestern, Illinois-Purdue, Indiana-Purdue, Iowa-Minnesota, Iowa-Nebraska, Iowa-Wisconsin, Maryland-Rutgers, Michigan-Michigan State, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Michigan-Ohio State, Oregon-Washington and USC-UCLA.

Each of the seasons will conclude with the Big Ten Championship game, which, starting in 2024, will consist of the top two teams overall in the conference standings. If a tiebreaker is needed those procedures will be announced at a later date.