10 thoughts on the Big Ten’s 2026 football schedule
Let the projecting begin!
The Big Ten has a men’s basketball night like no other tipping off shortly: Undefeated No. 5 Nebraska at No. 2 Michigan, followed by Indiana at No. 12 Purdue (both on Peacock).
So let’s talk conference football schedules, which were released on Tuesday.
1. Start with the heavy hitters, at least schedule-wise. We already knew that Ohio State was going to Indiana for a Big Ten title game rematch on Oct. 17. We already knew that the Buckeyes would travel to Texas on Sept. 12. Now we know that the trip to Iowa is Oct. 3, the trip to USC is Oct. 31 and the home game against Oregon is a week later on Nov. 7. There’s also the not-so-small matter of hosting Michigan, too, which as expected will be the regular-season finale (Nov. 28). This will be an experienced Ohio State team, one that is among the short list of favorites to win it all next season. But boy will the Buckeyes have their work cut out for them. At least their open date comes Oct. 24, seven games in.
2. We don’t need to re-litigate why USC dropped Notre Dame from its schedule. But damn … have you seen the Trojans’ Big Ten slate? They have Oregon (Sept. 26), Washington (Oct. 3) and at Penn State (Oct. 10) in a three-week span. They go to Indiana on Nov. 14. They host Ohio State on Halloween. They could be underdogs in all five of those games. They also go to Wisconsin (Oct. 24), which is never a picnic for a West Coast team. And they fly to Rutgers (Sept. 19), which, as Lincoln Riley will surely remind you, is three time zones away. If only someone in L.A. thought of all of this before deciding to join a Midwest-based conference. The good news, per BTN’s Dave Revsine on the broadcast: No West Coast team will travel to the Eastern or Central time zone for consecutive games without an open date separating those trips. USC currently has two open dates (Oct. 17 and Nov. 7) as well, as the Trojans still need to fill the nonconference spot left open when they dropped the Irish. That is expected to be in Week Zero.
