The Big Ten announced home and away scheduling for the 2024 and 2025 football seasons on Thursday afternoon in conjunction with the pending arrival of USC and UCLA to the conference in 2024. The league did not indicate dates or timing for any of the announced games. Those will be announced at a later date.
As was previously known, Thursday’s announcement marked the end of of the Big Ten Division structure with the top two teams in the Big Ten standings making the conference title game. The Big Ten indicated that the tie-breaking procedure would also be announced at a later date.
When it comes to Penn State, the Nittany Lions will host Michigan State, Ohio State, USC, Northwestern and Nebraska in 2024 for a fairly interesting and high-profile slate of games. While the Big Ten announced that teams would be granted protected matchups each season – for example Michigan and Ohio State will still always play each year – Penn State has no such protected matchup, the only team in the Big Ten for which that is the case. Conversely, Iowa is the only team with three protected matchups each year.
All the same, teams will play every other conference opponent at least twice – once home and once away – in a four-year period.
2024 Away
- Indiana
- Purdue
- Rutgers
- Wisconsin
2024 Home
- Michigan State
- Nebraska
- Ohio State
- Northwestern
- USC
In 2025 the Nittany Lions will play a slightly less interesting home slate, hosting Illinois, Minnesota, Rutgers and UCLA. Meanwhile Penn State will travel to Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State and USC for a more robust travel schedule. The Big Ten noted on Thursday that it considered the balance of annual travel by distance, regions of the conference, and time zones during the scheduling process.
2025 Away
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- USC
2025 Home
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Rutgers
- UCLA
