The Big Ten, one of the most active conferences in a realignment effort that will be formally announced this summer, will look much different when the 2024 college football season begins.
The addition of USC, Oregon, UCLA and Washington to the league will bring the Big Ten to 18 members and eliminate divisional structure entirely.
That means we won't see rivalry matchups this season, like the Land Grant Trophy game between Penn State and Michigan State, for example, but we will see some new and intriguing matchups.
As we look ahead to the 2024 schedule, let’s try to predict which Big Ten Conference teams will have the easiest time and which will struggle the most.
The Scarlet Knights' path to their next bowl game looks easier in 2024, as they don't have games scheduled against Ohio State, Penn State or Michigan, but they do have away games against Nebraska and USC.
The Hoosiers have back-to-back games against Michigan and Ohio State later in the season, but outside of that, they have a string of winnable games scheduled, including non-conference matches against FIU, Western Illinois and Charlotte.
The Hokies will avoid matchups against Michigan, Penn State and USC to ease into their new offense, but they do have the Cy-Hawk Game in Week 2 and a midseason road game against the Buckeyes.
The Cornhuskers will spend the first month of the season at home, with one of their matchups coming against a talented Colorado offense that dominated their secondary in last year's matchup. The second half of the schedule includes away games against Ohio State, USC and Iowa.
They'll face Michigan State, which is in transition, in Week 2, but that game will be played at home, while Maryland will avoid Ohio State and Michigan but will have to travel to Oregon and Penn State in the final month of the season.
P.J. Fleck's Gophers won't face the Buckeyes or Ducks this fall, but North Carolina comes to town in an intriguing ACC vs. Big Ten matchup in the season opener and they're also scheduled to host USC at Michigan the following week.
The Nittany Lions don't have games against Michigan or Oregon this season and will play Ohio State at home in midseason, but they do have an opening game at West Virginia, a stronger team than expected, and back-to-back trips against USC and Wisconsin.
David Brown is two weeks into the season with a home game against a good Duke University in transition, and three of Northwestern's final five games will be on the road, including Iowa and Michigan, with two of those games being home games against Ohio State and in-state rival Illinois.
Ryan Day will host Michigan to close the regular season, but also has a midseason trip to Oregon scheduled that could serve as a preview for the Big Ten title game.
Jonathan Smith will lead the Spartans through a tough midseason conference stretch that includes home games against the Buckeyes and Iowa, as well as road trips against Oregon and Michigan.
Oregon will begin with a West Coast feel, including a high-profile non-conference game against Group of Five contender Boise State followed by a trip to rival Oregon State. Trips to Michigan and Wisconsin will highlight the second half of the schedule for the playoff contenders.
The Big Ten will preview its new domestic tour schedule, with the Huskies visiting Rutgers, hosting Michigan the following week, then making back-to-back trips to Iowa and Indiana before hosting USC and facing Penn State a week later.
Things could go off the rails quickly for Illinois, with a home game against Kansas, a serious offensive powerhouse, Big Ten Conference play that starts at Nebraska and heads to Penn State the following week, and a home game against Michigan followed by a trip to Oregon.
The defending college football champions will make big changes on the sideline and on the field, welcoming SEC-bound Big 12 defending champion Texas to the Big House two weeks into the season, and if that's not enough, they have home games against USC and Oregon before the final game at Ohio State.
The Badgers will have a tough early-season test when they host perennial winner Alabama at Camp Randall on a Crimson Tide team missing some key players and without Nick Saban on the bench, followed by a trip to USC and a home game against Oregon sandwiched between trips to Iowa and Nebraska.
The Boilermarkers lost key contributors to the transfer portal and face CFP contender Notre Dame in Week 2 and Oregon State the following week. Oregon and Penn State are home games, while Purdue also has away games against Ohio State and Wisconsin.
USC's first two weeks in the Big Ten include a trip to Las Vegas to face SEC contender LSU, followed two weeks later by a trip to Michigan, while Penn State and Notre Dame come to the Los Angeles Coliseum, while the Trojans have trips to Washington and UCLA.
DeShawn Foster will lead the Bruins to a road trip to Hawaii in the season opener, then travel to Louisiana State two weeks later, then host Oregon and travel to Penn State two weeks after that. that.
–
More college football from SI: Top 25 Rankings | schedule | team
Follow College Football HQ: Bookmark | Ranking | recommendation
