Big Ten reveals new football schedules for 2024-28 seasons - ESPN

After adding Oregon and Washington to its ranks, the Big Ten on Thursday announced the newest version of its future football schedules for the 2024 to 2028 seasons.

The conference had released a schedule format in June, but with Oregon and Washington joining its ranks, another release was necessary.

This most recent schedule will be formatted with what the conference is calling the «Flex Protect XVII» model, which will feature a combination of protected opponents and rotating opponents for the universities.

«We added two more [teams], but that changes everything. We got to go back to the drawing board and do this rotation again,» Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said on a conference call. «We're staying with a lot of the principles that were in place when we did the original announcement back with USC and UCLA being integrated, the core concepts, competitive balance, connecting the whole conference. Trying to be mindful of travel, all those things are still in place here, protecting the traditional rivalries, all of those things are in this process.»

There are 12 guaranteed protected matchups within the new format that will be played annually: Illinois-Northwestern, Illinois-Purdue, Indiana-Purdue, Iowa-Minnesota, Iowa-Nebraska, Iowa-Wisconsin, Maryland-Rutgers, Michigan-Michigan State, Michigan-Ohio State, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Oregon-Washington and UCLA-USC.

Distance and travel have been a big part of the process for Petitti and Big Ten chief operating officer Kerry Kenny, as adding four West Coast teams created logistics questions that needed to be balanced for student-athletes and budgets. The conference worked with athletic directors on finding that balance and ensuring that things were working in the most efficient