By Lydia Jane Allison

ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference has announced the opponents for the 2024 and 2025 football seasons, coinciding with the inclusion of UCLA and USC into the conference. The 2024 season will mark the conference’s expansion to 16 teams and the elimination of the divisional format.

The “Flex Protect Plus” model maintains a nine-game league schedule each year and introduces 11 protected matchups across the conference. This approach ensures that every conference pairing will occur at least twice within a four-year span, allowing fans to experience each matchup at both home stadiums.

For Northwestern, the annual protected matchup will be against Illinois, a historic in-state rivalry of significance as the programs compete for the Land of Lincoln Trophy.

The 2024 football season will culminate with the Big Ten Football Championship Game, where the top two teams in the overall conference standings will compete for the Big Ten Championship. Further details on tiebreaking procedures will be announced at a later date.

Per the Big Ten Conference, 2024 and 2025 opponent rotations were approved by the Big Ten Administrators Council after careful consideration and constructs that included:

• Maintaining control and flexibility as the college football postseason format evolves, with the goal to create access for programs into an expanded College Football Playoff.
• Balance of annual travel by distance, regions of the conference, and time zones.
• Balance of historic competitiveness and recent competitive trends, including home/away balance of traditionally competitive schools.
• Balance and maximization of television inventory each season.

All game dates/times will be announced at a later date. Northwestern will open its 2023 campaign on Sunday, September 3 at 11 am CT against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Piscataway, New Jersey, in a game broadcast on CBS. The Wildcats home opener on Saturday, September 9, against UTEP will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT from Ryan Field. Season tickets for the 2023 football season at Ryan Field are now on-sale by visiting NUSports.com

Northwestern 2024 Opponents:

Home
Illinois
Indiana
Nebraska
USC

Away
Minnesota
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
UCLA

Northwestern 2025 Opponents:

Home
Maryland
Ohio State
Purdue
Rutgers
Wisconsin

Away
Illinois
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State

COURTESY NORTHWESTERN ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS