Big Ten Reveals CFB Schedules Through 2028 After Adding USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington

The Big Ten announced Thursday the college football schedules through the 2028 season after adding USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to the conference ahead of the 2024 campaign.

The 2024 season will be the first year of 18 teams competing in the Big Ten. It will also mark the first season of no divisional format.

Full schedules are available for each program at bigten.com.

The new schedule was formatted with the Flex Protect XVII model, which will feature a combination of protected opponents and rotating opponents for each program.

The 12 protected matchups that will be played each year within the format are:

• Illinois vs. Northwestern
• Illinois vs. Purdue
• Iowa vs. Minnesota
• Iowa vs. Nebraska
• Iowa vs. Wisconsin
• Maryland vs. Rutgers
• Michigan vs. Michigan State
• Michigan vs. Ohio State
• Minnesota vs. Wisconsin
• Oregon vs. Washington
• UCLA vs. USC

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said of the schedule on a conference call, per ESPN's Tom VanHaaren:

"We added two more (teams), but that changes everything. We got to go back to the drawing board and do this rotation again. 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."

After adding four West coast schools to the conference, Petitti added that maintaining a balance for student athletes and programs in regards to travel and budgets was also one of the biggest schedule considerations.

However, the mental and physical well-being of student athletes took priority over anything else while creating the schedules.

During the 2024 campaign, the Big Ten's new programs will face several big opponents on the road. Oregon, for example, will travel to face Michigan, USC will travel to face UCLA and Washington will travel to take on Penn State.

With the conference eliminating divisions, the Big Ten championship game will feature the top two teams in the overall standings at the end of the regular season, which will make things even more competitive among the top programs.