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Big Ten football schedule: League intent on not ‘starting from scratch’ with new additions, per report
By Paul Harvey
Published:
The Big Ten football schedule for the 2024 and 2025 seasons already needs to be reworked. Fortunately, the league is reportedly hoping to keep the base of its original plan in place.
According to Friday reports, the B1G is expected to add Oregon and Washington to the league beginning in 2024. No official announcements have been made as of this writing, but that appears to be just a matter of time.
Amazingly, the latest reported expansion move for the B1G comes roughly 2 months after the league announced a new schedule format for the additions of USC and UCLA. Titled a “Flex Protect Plus” model, the format included 3 protected rivals for Iowa, an annual matchup between Maryland and Rutgers, and zero protected rivals for Penn State.
While parts of that model will undoubtedly be tweaked to accommodate 18 teams in the B1G, the league is reportedly not looking to scrap the plan and start from scratch. According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, the base of the announced model will be preserved, including the most important games and maintaining the frequency of matchups.
The Big Ten won’t be starting from scratch on new 2024-25 football schedules, I’m told. The base of what was announced, including preserving the most important games and maintaining frequency of matchups, will remain. Some adjustments needed to make 18 teams work. https://t.co/mLZ3EUph3Q
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) August 4, 2023
While it’s unclear at this point what the changes might be, it’s certainly worth noting the original “Flex Protect Plus” had some built-in wiggle room for most programs to begin with. Most notably, we’ll see if Iowa loses one of its annual games or if Penn State has one added in a new system.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.