(WXYZ) — The Big Ten Conference has unveiled how it will handle football scheduling once the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California join in 2024.
USC and UCLA will begin play in the Big Ten in 2024. It will be the first season with 16 teams in the conference and no divisional format.
Today's announcement included which teams will meet during that year at the next. Launching under what is being called the Flex Protect Plus model, which features a combination of protected opponents and rotating opponents. Not every school has a protected opponent.
Under the schedule, each team will play nine intraconference games per season, with the teams playing every other conference opponent at lease twice - once at home and once away - in a given four-year period.
The conference schedule will include 11 protected matchups that will be played annually and feature a combination of historic and geographic rivalries, as well as trophy games. These protected matchups are Illinois-Northwestern, Illinois-Purdue, Indiana-Purdue, Iowa-Minnesota, Iowa-Nebraska, Iowa-Wisconsin, Maryland-Rutgers, Michigan-Michigan State, Michigan-Ohio State, Minnesota-Wisconsin, and UCLA-USC.
The other two-play opponents for each member institution will change every two years.
Seasons will continue to conclude with the Big Ten Football Championship Game, which will feature the top two teams in the overall conference standing at the end of the regular season. The winner will be named Big Ten Champion.
The game dates for the 2024 football schedule will be announced later this year.