Big Ten football doesn’t produce planned success for USC, UCLA

USC and UCLA can’t ease their way into the Big Ten.

The conference’s debut 2024 football schedule, announced Thursday, includes a generous sprinkling of traditional powers.

USC faces Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin at a time when it will presumably be without Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams, who has left to try his luck in the NFL.

UCLA gets Michigan and Ohio State during a season in which it also plays Louisiana State, putting an end to any jokes about the ease of the Bruins’ recent matchups, including Football Championship Series opponents.

Game dates and the order of opponents were not announced. UCLA’s first Big Ten schedule includes Ohio State, Northwestern, Nebraska, Minnesota and USC in the Rose Bowl, along with road games against Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Rutgers.

The football program is very focused on the 2023 season and making it a great one, UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said. However, it will be exciting to see the future conference games that fans will get to experience at the Rose Bowl.

USCs 2024 conference schedule includes Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois at the Coliseum along with road games against Penn State, Purdue, Maryland, Northwestern and UCLA.

The Trojans and Bruins share another common opponent with LSU in 2024. While UCLA will travel to Baton Rouge to face the Tigers, USC will play them in a neutral-site game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

It’s a good thing the College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams starting in 2024, because even the best teams in the Big Ten are likely to lose at least a handful of games due to these demanding schedules. On the flip side, a strength of schedule factor could envision a conference getting three or more teams into the CFP.

As expected, the Trojans and Bruins log a lot of yards. Without a trip to the Rose Bowl, USC’s four other conference road games in 2024 will involve trips of more than 2,000 miles. UCLA’s closest road conference game this season is in Iowa City, Iowa, approximately 2,796 miles from Los Angeles. The Bruins also plan to drive about 2,751 miles against Rutgers after flying to Hawaii for a non-conference game. They may want to budget for a jet lag specialist.

No Big Ten team will be required to make two trips to Los Angeles during the season as part of the 2024 and 2025 schedules.

The idea behind the schedule model was to preserve games that are important to Big Ten fans, conference commissioner Tony Petitti said in an interview on the Big Ten Network. With the addition of LA schools, Petitti said he wanted teams to tour more opponents more often; every Big Ten team plays each other at least once every two years.

The Big Tens divisions will be eliminated starting in 2024, and teams will have a maximum of three protected rivals they play each season, though Penn State has none. Unsurprisingly, USC and UCLA are only protected rivals of each other.

As part of the so-called flex Protect-plus schedule model, the teams will face three opponents home and away in 2024 and 2025. In addition to UCLA, USC will play Penn State and Wisconsin each season, and the Bruins will face Nebraska and Rutgers.

The Trojans will not have a break as part of their 2025 conference schedule as they play at Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State. UCLA will play Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State as part of its 2025 Big Ten schedule. Also on the Bruins’ schedule in 2025: a home game against two-time defending champion Georgia.

By then, major success will require UCLA and USC to knock off a parade of heavyweights as part of the new conference lineup.