Big Ten football schedule 2025: Release set for Wednesday, December 11

By Kevin Kelley -

The Big Ten football schedule for the 2025 season will be released next week, according to an announcement on Saturday.

The complete 2025 Big Ten football schedule will be unveiled on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 2:00pm ET / 1:00pm CT on a special release show on the Big Ten Network.

Big Ten teams will again play a nine-game conference schedule with three non-conference opponents. The Big Ten’s scheduling model, announced last year, ensures that each team will play every other conference opponent at least twice – once home and once away – and will play rotating opponents no more than three times in a five-year period.

The Big Ten Network also announced the date of one big matchup next season. The Penn State Nittany Lions will host the Oregon Ducks on Sept. 27, 2025.

The Big Ten will place the top two teams in the overall standings into the Big Ten Championship Game, which will likely be set for Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025.

Below are the opponents for each Big Ten team in 2025 and links to their schedules:

Illinois Fighting Illini

2025 Home: Maryland, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers, USC
2025 Away: Indiana, Purdue, Washington, Wisconsin

Indiana Hoosiers

2025 Home: Illinois, Michigan State, UCLA, Wisconsin
2025 Away: Iowa, Maryland, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue

Iowa Hawkeyes

2025 Home: Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Oregon, Penn State
2025 Away: Nebraska, Rutgers, USC, Wisconsin

Maryland Terrapins

2025 Home: Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Washington
2025 Away: Illinois, Michigan State, Rutgers, UCLA, Wisconsin

Michigan Wolverines

2025 Home: Ohio State, Purdue, Washington, Wisconsin
2025 Away: Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, USC

Michigan State Spartans

2025 Home: Maryland, Michigan, Penn State, UCLA
2025 Away: Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, USC

Minnesota Golden Gophers

2025 Home: Michigan State, Nebraska, Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin
2025 Away: Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oregon

Nebraska Cornhuskers

2025 Home: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, USC
2025 Away: Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State, UCLA

Northwestern Wildcats

2025 Home: Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Purdue, UCLA
2025 Away: Illinois, Nebraska, Penn State, USC

Ohio State Buckeyes

2025 Home: Minnesota, Penn State, Rutgers, UCLA
2025 Away: Illinois, Michigan, Purdue, Washington, Wisconsin

Oregon Ducks

2025 Home: Indiana, Minnesota, USC, Wisconsin
2025 Away: Iowa, Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers, Washington

Penn State Nittany Lions

2025 Home: Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon
2025 Away: Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, Rutgers, UCLA

Purdue Boilermakers

2025 Home: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Rutgers, USC
2025 Away: Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Washington

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

2025 Home: Iowa, Maryland, Oregon, Penn State
2025 Away: Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue, Washington

UCLA Bruins

2025 Home: Maryland, Nebraska, Penn State, Washington
2025 Away: Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, USC

USC Trojans

2025 Home: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, UCLA
2025 Away: Illinois, Nebraska, Oregon, Purdue

Washington Huskies

2025 Home: Illinois, Ohio State, Oregon, Purdue, Rutgers
2025 Away: Maryland, Michigan, UCLA, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Badgers

2025 Home: Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Ohio State, Washington
2025 Away: Indiana, Michigan, Oregon, Minnesota

Big Ten Football Schedule

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Comments (18)

Definitely 9 or 10-game schedule is better than the SEC/ACC’s joke of 8 conference games. Now, if they could add in a strength of schedule component, so that good teams that missed each other (like Penn State or Oregon plays Indiana next year) or bad teams that missed each other (like Purdue and Maryland) play each other the next time.

9 or 10 is too many. The B1G should go back to 8 and give each team five protected opponents and three rotating opponents on an eight-year schedule.

In order to keep the assigned rotating opponents the same in years 1/5, 2/6, 3/7, and 4/8 of the rotation, the protected matchups for years 5-8 would have the inverse venue rotation of years 1-4.

For instance, in years 1-4, UM-OSU would take place in Columbus in even years and Ann Arbor in odd years. For years 5-8, games in Columbus would be in odd years and Ann Arbor in even years, before switching back when a new 8-year rotation starts.

Z-Man your proposals are very, very obscured & somebody like you should not be watching College Football anymore you just care about only Z-Man wants to control CFB & you are really disrespecting the sport.

ACC has only 8 conference games because 4 them have annual games vs. in-state SEC rivals and ND also plays 5 ACC schools a year (spread evenly across (old) ACC schools).

The SEC has no excuse.

BUT:
I wouldn’t mind the B10 dropping down to 8 conference games if the B10 and SEC play each other 28 times a year in a scheduling alliance.

Pardon me Richard I do not buy Big Ten dropping to eight conference games also I do not buy Big Ten-SEC scheduling alliance.

I am fully satisfied with Big Ten current nine Conference games & three OOC games.

Enjoy Christmas season Richard.

The Big Ten’s protected rivalries under an 8-game conference schedule should be these:

Illinois: Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Indiana: Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue
Iowa: Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin
Maryland: Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, USC
Michigan: Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin
Michigan State: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue
Minnesota: Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State, Wisconsin
Nebraska: Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin
Northwestern: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, UCLA, USC
Ohio State: Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Rutgers
Oregon: Iowa, Nebraska, UCLA, USC, Washington
Penn State: Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State, Rutgers
Purdue: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Rutgers
Rutgers: Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA
UCLA: Northwestern, Oregon, Rutgers, USC, Washington
USC: Maryland, Northwestern, Oregon, UCLA, Washington
Washington: Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, UCLA, USC
Wisconsin: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska

The Big 12 and SEC should meanwhile drop to 7 conference games.

For the Big 12, I’ve proposed dividing the teams in to regional pods as follows:

Central: Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State (all members of the Big 12 prior to the 1996 expansion, before that it was the Big Eight)
East: Cincinnati, Iowa State, UCF, West Virginia
Texas: Baylor, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech (played together in the Southwest Conference’s last 20 seasons)
West: Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Utah (played together in the Western Athletic Conference during its first 16 seasons)

Teams would play all their pod rivals every year. Two pairs of pods would play each other in inter-pod play every year, on a 6-year schedule similar to the NFL scheduling rotation

While the SEC should make these their protected games:

Alabama: Auburn, Mississippi State, Tennessee
Arkansas: LSU, Texas, Texas A&M
Auburn: Alabama, Florida, Georgia
Florida: Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Missouri, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
LSU: Arkansas, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Mississippi State: Alabama, Oklahoma, Ole Miss
Missouri: Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina
Oklahoma: Mississippi State, Missouri, Texas
Ole Miss: LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt
South Carolina: Florida, Georgia, Missouri
Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: Arkansas, LSU, Texas
Vanderbilt: Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee

The reduction of conference games in the Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC paves the way for these rivalries to be played on an annual basis as OOC games:

Baylor-Texas
Baylor-Texas A&M
California-UCLA
Cincinnati-Ohio State
Florida-Miami (FL)
Kansas-Missouri
Oklahoma-Oklahoma State
Penn State-Pittsburgh

Overall, the ACC (which should add UNC-Wake Forest and Miami’s games against the Northeast schools to its protected rivalry list) and Big Ten should require two OOC games against P4 opposition to go with their 8 conference games (one ACC school, Stanford, would play Notre Dame every year, while the other 16 ACC football schools rotate playing ND on an 8-year schedule, playing the Fighting Irish once at home and once on the road in this period), and the Big 12 and SEC 3 to go with their 7 conference games. In addition to making select OOC rivalries annual, it paves the way for more blockbuster OOC games between P4 teams which would look good in the eyes of the CFP committee.

Sorry Z-Man

Decreasing conference games & more stupid OOC games is obscured.

Racist Mason-Dixon CFP Format is obscured

Disqualifying Big Ten teams like Michigan & Ohio State from FOX Big Noon Saturday that decline to play on Friday evening is obscured.

Having CFB play on actual Thanksgiving & make NFL run for its money is obscured.

You will be finding an Alabama Crimson Tide Sweatshirt & Miami Hurricane Sweatshirt under your Christmas Tree Z-Man.

what is with all the fighting in these comments

sad stuff to see from all of you

just try to enjoy the holiday season if you can

Only wish that Z-Man would accept College Football way it is instead of coming up with obscured ideas which make NO SENSE.

My dream is a Big Ten Championship rematch between Penn State & Oregon in National Championship Game 1/20/25.

Actually, I am pulling for Penn State.

At some point in these bloated conferences there has to be 10 game conference schedules. Yes, this means just two nonconference games, but too often teams play FCS opponents which nobody really wants to see.

Alabama AD crying about not looking at strength of schedule, yet he lost to two 6-6 teams and won a game over Mercer. In essence they were 8-3.

Play 10……and then play one G5 and one P4 opponent. This is not the hard.

Plus when B1G have four conference games at home and five on the road, you know they’re going cupcake.

Ohio State hosts Grambling for God’s Sake next year. That’s an awful game.

I have zero issues with Northwestern hosting North Dakota or Illinois hosting Southeast Missouri.

I am open to 10 game conference schedule in future courtesy of fan of conference games in CFB.