Nebraska heads to UCLA in 2024, USC in 2025 as part of new Big Ten football schedule

The fields are like fairways, the uniform colors pop and the stadiums are big enough to hold a whole bunch of Husker fans.

As part of the new 16-team, nine-game Big Ten schedule — which includes UCLA and USC — Nebraska football is headed to Los Angeles in 2024 and 2025.

In 2024, NU will play the Bruins in the Rose Bowl and Penn State in Happy Valley.

In 2025, the Huskers go to Los Angeles Coliseum to play the Trojans. Nebraska goes to Ohio State in 2025, too.

It’s part of the Big Ten’s complex, “Flex Protect Plus” approach to scheduling in which different teams have a different number of “protected” annual opponents. NU has one — Iowa — that it’ll play every year.

In 2024 and 2025 — the only two schedules released Thursday — the Huskers will have home-and-home contests with UCLA and Minnesota, too.

Every other team, Nebraska plays just once in the two-year cycle.

The 2024 schedule features home games against Indiana, Michigan State Minnesota and Wisconsin, with road games at Iowa, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue and UCLA.

In 2025, the Huskers have home games against Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and UCLA, while traveling to Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio State, USC. Dates for the games will be set later.

Iowa has three protected opponents — NU, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Michigan has Michigan State and Ohio State. UCLA and USC have each other. Penn State has no protected opponents at all. In total, 11 games were protected — Huskers-Hawkeyes, on Black Friday, was one of them.

On Husker Sports Radio, Nebraska Athletic Director Trev Alberts said the league asked each school if it could protect three games, he offered Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. At one point, it was possible that each league team would have three protected foes, and geographically, it made sense to bunch up with the Hawkeyes, Badgers and Gophers.

But “gamesmanship” started to intervene, and Alberts intimated that some schools were requesting protected games against teams that haven’t won much in the league.

“I don’t know, somebody might have suggested Nebraska as a protected rival because of what our record’s been the last four, five years,” Alberts said. “I’d like to think maybe Nebraska’s record and competitiveness looks a little bit different, several years now, under Coach (Matt) Rhule.”

Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said on Big Ten Network league teams are “confident” in the model. Petitti said the league will see how the format works in 2024 and 2025 to make sure the Big Ten isn’t “missing anything” in its approach.

“You wouldn’t be doing your job if you weren’t taking stock every so often,” Petitti said.

Said Alberts: “If you’re going to be a member of the Big Ten Conference, buckle up. We’re going to have difficult games every Saturday.”

Nebraska has a long history of playing UCLA in the Rose Bowl, including wins in 1984 and 1993, and losses in 1972, 1988 and 2012, when 25,000 Husker fans watched NU lose 36-30.

USC has hosted Nebraska just twice in the L.A. Coliseum. NU lost in 2006 and had a famous 21-21 tie in 1970 as part of its first national title season.

The Big Ten’s new framework protects the rivalry against Iowa and, for at least two years, extends a relationship with Minnesota. Former Big Ten West foes like Wisconsin and Northwestern appear just once on the schedule in the next two years.