Big Ten releases 2024 and 2025 football schedule format, MSU opponents
The much anticipated format for Big Ten football with the additions of USC and UCLA has finally been revealed.
On Thursday afternoon, the new schedule format and pairings were revealed live on the Big Ten Network for the 2024 and 2025 season. 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 face off against Michigan as a protected annual rivalry game. Indiana and Penn State will appear in the first two seasons as what is being dubbed "two-play opponents."
Michigan State will rotate among every other Big Ten member twice in a two-year period, once at home and once away. Some teams may appear in back-to-back years in the same road or home venue during future stretches of the schedules to be released in the coming years, however.
The Spartans will not face off against either new member UCLA or USC until 2025, however, with the Bruins visiting East Lansing and MSU on the road to take on the Trojans in Los Angeles. MSU is the only Big Ten program to not play one of the two new West Coast members in their first year in the conference.
As for the rest of the Big Ten opponents each year, it is as follows:
2024 Big Ten Opponents
Home
Illinois
Ohio State
Rutgers
Indiana
Purdue
Away
Michigan
Penn State
Maryland
Nebraska
Previously announced non-conference matchups include Florida Atlantic (Aug. 31), Louisiana (Sept. 14), at Boston College (Sept. 21)
2025 Big Ten Opponents
Home
Northwestern
UCLA
Michigan
Penn State
Away
Indiana
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
USC
Previously announced non-conference matchups include Western Michigan (Aug. 30), Youngstown State (Sept. 6), Boston College (Sept. 20)
The new format revealed by the Big Ten is considered a "Flex Protect Plus Model" and balances the differing requests of league members across a diverse landscape.
With programs like Penn State wanting no protected rivalries, Iowa wanting three, media partners wanting top tier matchups to draw eyeballs and pay for the checks they are cutting for the league coffers, and the unique challenge posed to programs now traveling across the country to compete against Los Angeles based teams, administrators had their work cut out for them to balance that.
Out of the requests comes the following protected annual rivalry games, of which Iowa has three, and 11 teams have just one, while Penn State has exactly zero:
- Illinois-Northwestern- Illinois-Purdue- Indiana-Purdue- Iowa-Minnesota- Iowa-Nebraska- Iowa-Wisconsin- Maryland-Rutgers- Michigan-Michigan State- Michigan-Ohio State- Minnesota-Wisconsin- UCLA-USC
In addition to the protected rivalries scheduled each year, the Big Ten is using the previously mentioned "two-play opponent" model. Using this, it will allow the league to balance Iowa's request and ensure a consistent rotation of allowing each team to play every other within a two-year period. The initial "two-play "model is as follows:
As for the rest of the opponent matchups, the league is able to ensure each member will now play every other member twice within a four-year span, one game at home and one game away. Doing away with divisions while maintaining a nine-game league schedule allows the Big Ten to do so as compared to the Southeastern Conference, which recently chose not to move to a nine-game league schedule to allow members to play one another more frequently.
The Big Ten Championship game will move to a new format in 2024 as well, which pits the two best teams in the conference against one another for the league title at the end of the regular season. This move coincides with the College Football Playoff expansion to a 12-team model as well, helping boost the likelihood of the league champion getting a first-round bye.
An initial look over the new Michigan State opponent pairings show the Spartans will have to face off against Nebraska in back-to-back seasons and visit Lincoln for the first time in six seasons, last playing at Memorial Stadium in 2018. It will mark the third time in a four-season span the Spartans and Cornhuskers will play one another.
A visit from Northwestern in 2025 will mark the first matchup between MSU and NU in four seasons and the first visit by the Wildcats to East Lansing since 2020. A trip to Iowa in 2025 will also mark a third-straight visit to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City for Michigan State. The Hawkeyes will go a minimum of eight years since their last visit to Spartan Stadium, a 17-10 victory for MSU on Sept. 30, 2017, and could extend even longer if a return visit does not occur in 2026.
When the Spartans take on the Trojans in Los Angeles in 2025, it will mark the first game between the two programs since 1990 and the first regular season matchup since 1987. It will also be the first visit by Michigan State to the L.A. Coliseum since Sept. 29, 1978.
As for the Bruins, the 2025 visit to Spartans Stadium will be the first since Sept. 28, 1974, which is also the most recent meeting between the two teams.
The full schedule will be released by the Big Ten at a later date yet to be announced. The 2023 schedule currently has seven game times announced as of last week.
As for the full Big Ten league wide opponent pairings for 2024 and 2025, that can be found below.