Nebraska football’s long wait for a revised Big Ten schedule in the new-look conference has come to an end.
The Big Ten, which will grow to a 16-team league in 2024 with the additions of USC and UCLA, announced the conference’s scheduling model and future matchups for the 2024 and 2025 seasons on Thursday. Game dates for the 2024 schedule will be announced later this year.
In 2024, the Huskers will play four home games against Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin and five road games against Iowa, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue and UCLA – in addition to their three nonconference matchups at home against UTEP (Aug. 31), Colorado (Sept. 7) and Northern Iowa (Sept. 14).
In 2025, Nebraska has five home games against Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and UCLA and four away games against Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio State and USC – in addition to its three nonconference matchups against Akron (at home Sept. 6), Cincinnati (on the road Sept. 13) and Louisiana-Monroe (at home Oct. 18).
Nebraska’s annual matchup against Iowa is one of the conference’s 11 protected rivalries. That game, which will continue to be played on Black Friday each year, is the Huskers’ only protected rivalry. They will play Wisconsin in 2024 but will not face the Badgers in 2025.
The Huskers are the lone team in the conference that will face Michigan, Ohio State, USC and UCLA in the same season (2025) across the first two years of the new format.
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The Big Ten adopted a “Flex Protect Plus” scheduling model, which keeps the nine-game conference schedule intact but eliminates divisions following the 2023 season. The top-two teams in the overall conference standings will meet in the Big Ten Championship Game after the regular season ends. Tiebreaking procedures will be announced later.
The new model gives each team up to three protected annual opponents and has each program cycle through every team in the rest of the conference. Each Big Ten team will play all of the other teams in the conference over a two-year span. Teams will play every other conference opponent at least twice in a four-year period – one home at home, one on the road and once away.
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There are 11 matchups designated as protected rivalries that will be played every single year, including the Nebraska-Iowa game that will continue to be played on Black Friday.
The new format also includes “two-play” opponents, which are not protected rivalries but will take place in back-to-back seasons and rotate every two years. In 2024 and 2025, the Huskers’ three “two-play” opponents are Iowa (which, again, will be played every year), Minnesota and UCLA, the latter two of which will rotate in 2026/2027.
The new model was implemented with the goal of creating competitive balance while also keeping traditional matchups intact, Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said on Tuesday when previewing the revealing of the new format.
“There’s some important things about nine (games) with strength of schedule but also just how you play and how long it would take to rotate,” said Petitti, the former chief operating officer of MLB who was instrumental in TV deals and scheduling in that office. “So there are certain things that I think are important that 100 percent the conference reinforces it. You don’t wanna go too long where schools continue to miss each other in terms of how often they play.
“Just by comparison, one of the great things we changed at MLB, if you look at the schedule originally, everybody plays everybody now. If you’re the Yankees, you’re playing the Dodgers every year. … It just allows you to not have to wait that long, as a fan, to see those teams especially when those teams have star players. I think it’s exactly the same sort of idea here. It’s easier to have competitive balance when you’re playing more frequently. So I think those are some of the really important tenants you’ll see when we announce what the format is. I think those things were incredibly important and I think were handled the right way to make sure that members aren’t missing each other for too many years. It’ll feel more cohesive as a conference this way.”
Petitti continued: “If you can get into a format where you’re protecting those core rivalries and, at the same time, you’re creating a rotation that has members playing each other frequently so you can provide that same type of connection is really important. But there are just certain things that you just absolutely have to protect.”
According to the Big Ten, opponent rotations were approved by the Big Ten Administrators Council after consideration and constructs that included:
• Maintaining control and flexibility as the college football postseason format evolves, with the goal to create access for programs into an expanded College Football Playoff.
• Balance of annual travel by distance, regions of the conference, and time zones.
• Balance of historic competitiveness and recent competitive trends, including home/away balance of traditionally competitive schools.
• Balance and maximization of television inventory each season.
In addition to Nebraska vs. Iowa, the other 10 protected rivalries are:
Indiana vs. Purdue
Maryland vs. Rutgers
Michigan vs. Ohio State
Michigan vs. Michigan State
Illinois vs. Northwestern
Illinois vs. Purdue
Iowa-Wisconsin
Iowa-Minnesota
Wisconsin-Minnesota
UCLA-USC
Penn State is the lone Big Ten team without a protected rivalry.
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