It feels like we’ve been here before in a bit of a Big Ten football Déjà vu. In fact, earlier this year, the conference announced the scheduling model and opponents for the expanded Big Ten that involved the additions of UCLA and USC. It was no doubt a painstaking and labor intensive process to align things across the span of the entire country.
But then it was all ripped up, placed in a virtual trash compactor, and spit out with the garbage when Oregon and Washington added to the chaos by also joining the Big Ten. And since that news came with the revelation that all four West Coast schools would be starting conference play in 2024, we knew the schedulers would have to sharpen their pencils and learn to persevere for another schedule dump sooner rather than later.
On Thursday, we got our first taste of that when the Big Ten announced the home and away conference opponents in football for the 2024 through 2028 seasons. The scheduling model that all of this bruhaha is being called now is the “Flex Protect XVIII model.”
No, it’s not an insurance policy like it sounds, but rather, a rotation of scheduling that involves each Big Ten institution continuing to play nine intraconference games per season, with teams playing every other conference opponent at least twice – once home and once away. Each program will play rotating opponents no more than three times in a five-year period.
With the dropping of these opponents, we now know who and when Ohio State will be playing over the next five years, and it’s intriguing if you are into traveling and/or welcoming new teams to the banks of the Olentangy. It should also be noted that the complete 2024 schedule will come out either later this month or in November. The only team the Buckeyes will play annually will be of course Michigan to preserve the annual rivalry.
Outside of that, Ohio State will face Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue and Rutgers three times, and will play against Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan State, UCLA, USC, Washington and Wisconsin twice.
Here’s a look at who the Buckeyes will play both home and away each year, but first some things to keep in mind about how the Big Ten went about coming up with this schedule.
