Big Ten releases 2024-2028 football schedule format, MSU opponents

The Big Ten has again unveiled its opponent pairings for the newly expanded league beginning in 2024. After initially releasing pairings following the addition of USC and UCLA back in June, the conference has had to redo those after it was announced two months later that Oregon and Washington will also be joining the league for the next academic year.

On Thursday afternoon, the new schedule format and pairings were revealed live on the Big Ten Network's show, "Big Ten Today," for the 2024 through 2028 seasons. While the schedule itself is still not set in terms of times and dates as of yet, Michigan State fans now know that the Spartans will still face off against Michigan as a protected annual rivalry game every year.

Michigan State will rotate among every other Big Ten member twice in a five-year period, once at home and once away. However, no team, including MSU, will play any non-protected rivalry matchup more than three times in a five-year period. The league schedule will remain at nine games per season with three non-conference matchups in a 12-game regular season.

The league schedules attempt to balance distance traveled regions, and time zones. However, any West Coast games played by the Big Ten will not have a 9 a.m. local start time, though West Coast teams may have to play a noon Eastern Time or 11 a.m. Central Time kickoff.

The Big Ten also emphasizes it is trying to ensure the goal of getting in as many teams to an expanded playoff as possible, while balancing the historic and recent competitiveness of all league programs.

As for Michigan State, the Spartans have one similar carryover from the original pairings released in June. MSU will not face either of the new California schools in 2024, but will have to play at Oregon now. Then in 2025, the Spartans host UCLA and will travel to USC, just as originally matched in June's release.

The 2026 season will feature visits by both Oregon and Washington, with a trip to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA. The 2027 campaign schedules only one West Coast team, with a visit to Seattle to play Washington, before 2028 brings a road trip to Autzen Stadium to take on Oregon and a visit by the Trojans to Spartan Stadium.

As for longstanding conference foes, Indiana (2024, 2025, 2027), Purdue (2024, 2027, 2028), Illinois (2024, 2026, 2028), and Iowa (2024, 2025, 2028) all appear three times. Then appearing just twice on the schedule through 2028 will be Ohio State (2024, 2027), Northwestern (2026, 2027), Wisconsin (2026, 2027), and Minnesota (2025, 2028)

The more recent additions to the conference will feature on MSU's schedule as follows: Maryland (2024, 2025, 2028), Rutgers (2024, 2026, 2027), Penn State (2025, 2027, 2028), and Nebraska (2025, 2026).

The pairings in full, including home and away along with non-conference opponents, are listed below.

Home

Indiana
Iowa
Ohio State
Purdue
Rutgers

Away

Illinois
Maryland
Michigan
Oregon

Previously announced non-conference matchups include Florida Atlantic (Aug. 31), Louisiana (Sept. 14), at Boston College (Sept. 21)

Home
Maryland
Michigan
Penn State
UCLA

Away
Indiana
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
USC

Previously announced non-conference matchups include Western Michigan (Aug. 30), Youngstown State (Sept. 6), Boston College (Sept. 20)

Home

Illinois
Nebraska
Northwestern
Oregon
Washington

Away

Michigan
Rutgers
UCLA
Wisconsin

Previously announced non-conference matchups include Toledo (Sept. 5) and Eastern Michigan (Sept. 12)

Home

Indiana
Michigan
Rutgers
Wisconsin

Away

Northwestern
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Washington

Previously announced non-conference matchups include Central Michigan (Sept. 11)

Home

Iowa
Minnesota
Penn State
Purdue
USC

Away

Illinois
Maryland
Michigan
Oregon

Previously announced non-conference matchups include Western Michigan (Sept. 2)

No word yet on whether Michigan State's non-conference matchups again Oregon in East Lansing in 2029 and in Eugene in 2030 will be canceled or remain as of yet, though.

As for league-wide rivalry pairings, most teams are given one protected rival. However, rival pairings such as Michigan getting both Ohio State and Michigan State, along with Minnesota-Wisconsin-Iowa and the Hawkeyes also getting Nebraska, too, do try to protect historical (and modern for Iowa-Nebraska) rivalries. Penn State remains "unrivaled" just as it did in the previous pairings, though.

The guaranteed annual protected matchups across the conference in full are 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.

Each season will conclude with the annual Big Ten Football Championship Game. Beginning in 2024, the game will feature the top-two teams in the overall conference standings at the end of the regular season, with the winner earning the Big Ten title. Tiebreaking procedures will be announced at a later date.

The full 2024 through 2028 conference wide pairings are available below.

Discuss this article in our premium forums by clicking here.

You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

For video content, including our Red Cedar Radar podcast, find us on YouTube and consider subscribing.