Everyone had a reaction to the big news this week. The Big Ten officially unveiled its “Flex Protect Plus” scheduling model for the 2024 season and beyon.
In this new scheduling model, divisions are no more and each school will play every other school once every other year and host each school once every four years. There’s also permanent opponents for every school except for Penn State.
The Iowa Hawkeyes retained three permanent rivals under the new scheduling format: Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. That’s the most of any Big Ten program.
Most Hawkeye fans seem to agree that keeping these three trophy games on a permanent annual basis is what they wanted to see happen. Beyond that, Iowa gets to welcome the newcomers—USC and UCLA—to Big Ten play immediately.
Iowa makes a 2024 road trip to the Coliseum and USC, while hosting UCLA in what fans hope is a frosty Kinnick Stadium.
From jokes about UCLA’s first trip to Iowa City to thoughts on the permanent opponents, here’s the best reactions from Hawkeye Twitter and beyond to the Big Ten schedule unveiling.