The Gophers will have protected rivalries against Iowa and Wisconsin
Once USC and UCLA finalized their move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten, one of the key questions was how the conference would handle scheduling, specifically for football.
Well, we have our answer.
The Big Ten unveiled their conference football schedules for 2024 and 2025 on Thursday, utilizing a “Flex Protect” model that allows the league to assign different numbers of permanent annual opponents for each member team. Programs can play between one and three protected annual opponents while cycling through the rest of the league’s schools over several years.
Minnesota’s protected opponents will be Iowa and Wisconsin.
Under the new scheduling model, the Big Ten will no longer be split into two divisions. All teams will play nine regular season conference games each year.
The Gophers’ conference matchups for 2024:
- vs. Iowa
- vs. Northwestern
- vs. Ohio State
- vs. Rutgers
- at Indiana
- at Michigan
- at Nebraska
- at UCLA
- at Wisconsin
The Gophers’ conference matchups for 2025:
- vs. Maryland
- vs. Michigan State
- vs. Nebraska
- vs. USC
- vs. Wisconsin
- at Illinois
- at Iowa
- at Penn State
- at Purdue
The #B1G Announces Future Football Schedule Format
#B1Gfootball24and25
https://t.co/AoNgFZWg9h pic.twitter.com/zBceT9kNGG— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) June 8, 2023
Here are the Big Ten football home/away matchups for 2025: https://t.co/iOTzQCP1yh pic.twitter.com/DtnKM35BOj
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) June 8, 2023
The #B1G Announces & Two-Play Opponents
#B1Gfootball24and25
https://t.co/AoNgFZWg9h pic.twitter.com/EujtcgesP3— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) June 8, 2023