There is a numerical symmetry associated with the Big Ten’s 2024 football schedule, which was unveiled Thursday afternoon. It was Version 63 that became the winner of the 18-team conference that will stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific next summer.
“Typically we don’t get past the late 20s or 30s with football schedules,” Big Ten chief operating officer Kerry Kenny said. “It just shows how much balance we had to find in terms of geography and travel and then also in terms of competitiveness.
“Also from a numerology perspective, six times three is 18. I thought it was a unique nod to the fact that we’re dealing with a mathematical solution here and not just lining up teams on a board.”
For the first time without divisions since 2010 and the inaugural campaign for newcomers USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon, the Big Ten’s 129th football season will feature several changes and adjustments. It is also designed for entertainment and excitement.
Here are 10 big topics related to the release of the 2024 roadmap.
Computerized Strategy: USC-Michigan
In perhaps the most anticipated game of 2024, USC will make its Big Ten debut on Sept. 21 at Michigan. It turns out that the league was both lucky and strategically lucky with this matchup.
“It’s a great talking point to say that these two historic programs are opening at a historic venue, and of course one of our TV partners will be excited to see this game,” Kenny said. “But we also looked at it at different points in the schedule.”
Both traditional powers battle other high-profile programs before facing off against each other. The Trojans open against LSU in Las Vegas on Labor Day Sunday (September 1), while Michigan hosts Texas on September 7.
“We felt through the lens of both individual schedules it was an equivalent result, in the sense that both had a similar lead-up and preparation to get to this game,” Kenny said, “whereas we had it in others “In parts of the game plan it was skewed too much in favor of one team over the other.”
Lincoln Riley’s USC program will make its Big Ten debut at Michigan in September. (Darren Yamashita/USA Today)
Travel concerns
With a 14-week season, the Big Ten wanted to reduce travel effects for its four West Coast newcomers and its current 14 programs. With two free games scheduled, all newcomers received either a bye or a home game after a trip to the Eastern or Central time zone.
“We were lucky that we were 100 percent there,” Kenny said. “No team in the Pacific time zone and none of our 18 total teams are required to play away games that cross multiple time zones in consecutive weeks.
“On the other hand, we were able to work with the 14 schools in the Eastern and Central Time Zones that went west and secured eight of the institutions that had a bye from that West Coast trip. Then there are six home games following these trips to the West Coast.”
The league was able to implement this in non-conference games as well. Purdue plays at Oregon State on Sept. 21 and has a home game against Nebraska the following week. Indiana travels to UCLA on September 14th and faces Charlotte in Bloomington on September 21st.
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Big Ten sets schedule for 2024 football season
Rivalry weekend
In its first year with 18 teams, the Big Ten dedicated its final weekend to traditional rivalries. These include Michigan-Ohio State, Indiana-Purdue, Wisconsin-Minnesota and Illinois-Northwestern as well as the Iowa-Nebraska duel on Black Friday. Washington and Oregon also play each other, while USC and UCLA face non-conference opponents Notre Dame and Fresno State, respectively. With Penn State and Michigan State not playing each other, there were some changes over Thanksgiving weekend.
“At least in the first year, we wanted to make sure we had as much resemblance to the traditional end of the season as we have in the past,” Kenny said. “There have been years where Penn State and Michigan State didn’t play at the end of the year, but in the last week of the season they actually ended up playing Penn State-Rutgers and Michigan State-Maryland. So we kind of turned to that quartet of schools and said, if it can’t be Penn State-Michigan State and Rutgers versus Maryland, then let’s at least have those four stick together.”
USC-UCLA alternates between the second-to-last and final weekend of the season depending on when the USC-Notre Dame game takes place in Los Angeles. The Trojans and Bruins will meet on the weekend of November 23rd in 2024. The league helped move the UCLA-Fresno State game to the final weekend to ensure that UCLA would not play in 10 consecutive weeks.
Oregon-Washington
Oregon and Washington traditionally end their regular seasons against Oregon State and Washington State, respectively, but the Ducks and Huskies will face each other in their Big Ten final in 2024. But with uncertainty over whether the Civil War or the Apple Cup will continue, the Big Ten have created openings to give both schools that opportunity.
“With the Oregon-Washington game, we were pretty open with leadership at both schools that, best-case scenario, from a Big Ten perspective, we would like to have the game happen at the end of the season. said Kenny. “It fits in so well with the tradition and rivalry of the other encounters this weekend. But we also wanted to make sure that we understood where there might be opportunities for them to still compete against their in-state rivals if their thinking is consistent that they need to do that starting in 2024.”
The Big Ten left the penultimate weekend open for both schools should they want to extend this historic streak. After this fall, the Oregon-Oregon State series will be played 127 times, while Washington-Washington State will be playing for the 114th time.
Oregon and Washington are scheduled to play their Big Ten finals against each other in 2024. (Steven Bisig / USA Today)
The galloping ghost
On October 18, 1924, Illinois’ star halfback Red Grange helped defeat defending champion Michigan by returning the opening kickoff 95 yards and then scoring runs of 67, 56 and 44 yards in the first 12 minutes of the game. He added a fifth touchdown and passed for a sixth in a 39-14 win. It took place on the same day as the official dedication of Memorial Stadium.
On October 19, 2024 – 100 years and one day after Grange’s legendary performance – the Wolverines will visit Memorial Stadium. Grange’s 12-foot-tall, one-ton bronze statue stands tall in front of the west side of the stadium and the stadium’s entrance is known as “Grange Grove.”
“We didn’t force it and demand that it land on that date, but we did load the computer with some information that would hopefully lead us to that date,” Kenny said. “The fact that this took place almost to the day, 100 years later, in the same location and with the same teams participating was another cool little historical highlight achieved on this schedule as well.”
Fridays, Labor Day, Black Friday
When the Big Ten worked with Fox to secure funding for Washington and Oregon, the league agreed to move games to at least nine Friday nights starting in 2024.
Some venues will not host Friday night games due to logistical challenges, but now that the schedule has been released there is discussion about which games will be postponed.
“We are working with TV partners to understand which games can be moved to Friday based on the parameters in place, which games are non-negotiable – meaning they cannot take place on Saturday due to broadcast position – and selection. “Process,” Kenny said. “That will be the case in the next few weeks and hopefully not months. But what we’re hoping to get done sooner rather than later is to figure out which of these games can be rescheduled for Friday.”
This year, the Big Ten played an early Sunday game between Rutgers and Northwestern over Labor Day weekend. Next year, a Sunday game will air in prime time on NBC.
“The goal is to really capture every night of this Labor Day weekend, with the exception of the actual holiday on Monday,” Kenny said. “I think fundamentally it would be a game on Thursday, a game on Friday and then a game on Sunday, in addition to the full schedule on Saturday.”
Iowa and Nebraska have played on Black Friday every year since the Huskers joined the league in 2011. Penn State-Michigan State was the second Black Friday game this year. It is uncertain which game will come to Iowa-Nebraska on Thanksgiving Friday in 2024.
Week zero
This schedule was the third iteration of the 2024 layout. The first came out in 2019 when the Big Ten had 14 teams, the second was unveiled in June for the 16-team version. With Washington and Oregon accepting invitations in August, arranging conference play early in the season was a challenge. But the league worked Maryland at Michigan State in Week 2, which the original schedule called for 14 teams.
“The two schools had built up their non-conference opponents and when they wanted to play them, they took into account the fact that they would be playing this early conference game as East Division opponents,” Kenny said.
Penn State with a home opener?
For the first time since pre-COVID, Kenny said, the Big Ten will be able to fully control its schedule. Without divisions, it gave the league leeway to adjust games and schedules. And with Penn State’s involvement, planners responded to a constant complaint.
Penn State has opened Big Ten play on the road for eight straight seasons and 13 of the last 14 years. In 2024, the Nittany Lions begin with two home games: September 28 against Illinois and October 5 against UCLA.
“It was very intentional,” Kenny said. “We had some great conversations along the way with (athletic director) Pat Kraft. He was always great at presenting Penn State’s perspective and letting us know that this was important to their program and their community.”
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Bye to Bama
Wisconsin has a big nonconference game, playing Alabama on Sept. 14 at Camp Randall Stadium. The Big Ten added a bye between the Badgers’ game against the Crimson Tide and the Big Ten’s Sept. 28 opener at USC.
“Having that second bye and being able to maneuver between two really important games for Wisconsin was just a slightly more defensible outcome on paper than having those games played in back-to-back weeks,” Kenny said.
Flex Protect is expanding
The Big Ten was the first power conference to adopt a flex-protect schedule with an unequal number of annual rivalry games. The league kept 12, giving Iowa three protected rivals, Penn State none and the remaining schools either one or two.
The ACC and Big 12 released multi-year schedules this week, and the ACC protected 16 series while the Big 12 retained just four. Among power conferences, the SEC is the lone holdout from adopting a multi-year schedule beyond 2024. The SEC is currently deadlocked between a nine-game schedule with three protected annual opponents or an eight-game schedule with one protected rival.
“It was really a nice nod to the Flex Protect effort,” Kenny said, highlighting that the other leagues copied elements of the Big Ten’s scheduling model. “We put ourselves to the test and did something different.” We are confident and happy with the success we have achieved, at least on paper. And now seeing others starting to implement this, I think, really makes us feel like we’re moving in the right direction.”
(Top photo: G Fiume / Getty Images)