Gophers 2024 and 2025 Big Ten opponents announced.

[PMWinSTP]

Home 2024

• 08/31 - North Carolina
• 09/07 - Rhode Island
• 09/14 - Nevada
• Iowa
• Northwestern
• Ohio State
• Rutgers

Home 2025

• 08/28 - Buffalo
• 09/06 - Bowling Green
• Maryland
• Michigan State
• Nebraska
• USC
• Wisconsin

USC here in November 2025...

 

[60's Guy]

Ya, this looks like a great schedule system! The Gophers can compete and once every couple years we get a California trip. We play Wisconsin and Iowa every year and Nebraska most years.

2025 may be our best ever chance to win the Big Ten. No Ohio State or Michigan. Gotta beat USC at home and Penn State at their place. Yes, we also have Iowa in Iowa but we'll be coming off two wins in a row in '23 and '24. The other 6 we have a chance to be favored. 5 Home games, 4 road games.

 

[PMWinSTP]

and just for fun - a list of Big Ten Rivalry games from Wikipedia:

Big Ten conference rivalry games[edit]​

Game	Trophy	Team	Team	First Year	Latest Year	Meetings
Illini -Nwest	Land of Lincoln Trophy	Illinois	Northwestern	1892	2022	116
Illinois–OSU	Illibuck	Illinois	Ohio State	1902	2017	103
Illinois–Purd	Purdue Cannon	Illinois	Purdue	1890	2022	98
Indiana–MSU	Old Brass Spittoon	Indiana	MSU	1922	2022	69
Indiana–Purd	Old Oaken Bucket	Indiana	Purdue	1891	2022	124
Iowa–Minn	Floyd of Rosedale	Iowa	Minnesota	1891	2022	116
Iowa–Nebr	Heroes Trophy	Iowa	Nebraska	1891	2022	53
Iowa–Wisc	Heartland Trophy	Iowa	Wisconsin	1894	2022	96
Mary–PSU		Maryland	Penn State	1917	2022	46
MSU–PSU	Land Grant Trophy	Michigan State	Penn State	1914	2022	37
Mich-Nwest	George Jewett Trophy	Michigan	Northwestern	1892	2021	76
Mich–MSU	Paul Bunyan Trophy	Michigan	MSU	1898	2022	115
Mich–MN	Little Brown Jug	Michigan	Minnesota	1892	2020	104
Mich–OSU		Michigan	Ohio State	1897	2022	118
MN–Nebr	$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy	Minnesota	Nebraska	1900	2022	63
MN–PSU	Governor's Victory Bell	Minnesota	Penn State	1993	2019	15
MN–Wisc	Paul Bunyan's Axe	Minnesota	Wisconsin	1890	2022	133
Neb–Wisc	Freedom Trophy	Nebraska	Wisconsin	1901	2022	16
OSU-PSU		Ohio State	Penn State	1912	2022	38
UCLA–USC	Victory Bell	UCLA	USC	1929	2022	92

Wait...there's TWO Victory Bell Trophies???

 

[60's Guy]

Wait...there's TWO Victory Bell Trophies???

Only if you ignore the Governor's

 

[PMWinSTP]

Only if you ignore the Governor's

??

 

[Uffda]

I'm not even sure Iowa fiercely wanted Nebraska as a 3rd rival. Nebraska, I am sure wanted it, the Hawkeyes are just playing along.

With regards to Penn St. If you don't have a genuine rival, then as I have said multiple times ad nauseam to gin it up and require teams to play annually (or even 4 years consecutively) is not necessary.

I really like this format.

Iowa does indeed want Nebraska as a rival.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I’m happy we keep Iowa and Wisconsin every year.


Sad we lose Nebraska and don’t get Michigan every year.

Would 4 permanent rivals been weird/ scheduling trouble? Maybe, but I don’t see the new scheduling as better either.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I see the PSU having no protected rivals as a move from their AD to try to have a year where they don't play OSU or Michigan in the regular season. Their fans want them to play OSU regularly, but especially in the new format I could see them having one or both of those games as a protected game being viewed as a detriment to them getting into the expanded playoff.

Like, there is a world where PSU misses OSU and Michigan and goes undefeated in the regular season, and then plays the winner of the OSU vs Michigan game in the B1G championship. In that case, unless they get blown out, they likely will be within the top 12 when the playoffs happen.

PSU is “unrivaled”, a rivalry game would be illegal.

 

[Stuff]

In 2025 WI plays tOSU, USC, and Alabama.
The best way to entice recruits is to show them if you come here you will be losing in big games on a big stage.

fixed it for you

 

[BigTenGuy]

I’m happy we keep Iowa and Wisconsin every year.


Sad we lose Nebraska and don’t get Michigan every year.

Would 4 permanent rivals been weird/ scheduling trouble? Maybe, but I don’t see the new scheduling as better either.

3 permanent rivalries is the most you can have and still play the remaining 12 opponents once every other year, assuming a 9-game conference schedule. Think this is how the math works.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I can’t find a loss either year.

 

[60's Guy]

??

USC UCLA is simply called the Victory Bell and the other is called the Governor's Victory Bell.
Football>College Football>NFL Football .... the name's are different with a portion being the same.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

3 permanent rivalries is the most you can have and still play the remaining 12 opponents once every other year, assuming a 9-game conference schedule. Think this is how the math works.

I don’t really care how that works. If we don’t see Indiana often… I don’t care.

Not playing Michigan or Nebraska much is a bigger deal than playing Indiana or Maryland more often.

 

[Some guy]

I wouldn't be shocked if PSU was one of the main schools pushing for this. I don't really think they have a rival they want to protect each year, at least not one that feels the same way back. Instead of getting lumped with some meaningless rivalries, they just get to rotate everyone

They were an independent until the 1990s
This makes sense for penn state

A little surprised Rutgers and/or Maryland didn’t demand it

 

[highwayman]

3 permanent rivalries is the most you can have and still play the remaining 12 opponents once every other year, assuming a 9-game conference schedule. Think this is how the math works.

You are 100% correct.

Dochterman: Big Ten could have chosen good; instead, it opted for great

Instead of selecting the easy solution with scheduling, the Big Ten chose complicated. And it chose wisely.

theathletic.com

 

[fmlizard]

I'm disappointed that our rivalries with Rutgers, Indiana, and Northwestern were not protected

 

[Some guy]

I'm disappointed that our rivalries with Rutgers, Indiana, and Northwestern were not protected

I think if the team could’ve protected
Michigan
Ohio state
Wisconsin
Iowa
Northwestern
Indiana
Illinois
Purdue
Michigan state

It would’ve felt more big ten

 

[EG#9]

I want to see the "U" show that these rivalry games are actually important to them beyond lip service. We are currently on a school record 8 game losing streak to Iowa. Wisconsin just fired Paul Chryst who finished his career at 43-18 in the Big Ten.

The expectation should be to beat those programs. The resources should be made available to do so. If those are not the expectations and/or the resources will not be made available then we should not have protected the games. I believe the stat is something like we haven't swept Iowa and Wisconsin since like 1993? You'd think a MAC team would run in to a sweep in 30 years... In the next decade, I'd like to see at least an 11-9 combined record against Iowa and Wisconsin. I think Fleck is talented enough to do it, but not if we lag behind in administrative support.

 

[Schnauzer]

It seems weird that the B1G continues to keep Indiana from visiting Minneapolis. One home game against Indiana between 2009 and at least 2025. Meanwhile, the Gophers have visited the Hoosiers several times over the same time period.

 

[BilldGopher]

Better not overlook BG in '25...

 

[Some guy]

It seems weird that the B1G continues to keep Indiana from visiting Minneapolis. One home game against Indiana between 2009 and at least 2025. Meanwhile, the Gophers have visited the Hoosiers several times over the same time period.

Indiana will visit Minnesota in 2026 or 2027 based on the scheduling model they just released. (Unless they change it)

Minnesota will play Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin in both 2024 and 2025 and will play everyone else once.

In 2026 and 2027 they will play Iowa and Wisconsin. They will play a third team (to be named later) home and home. They will play everyone else once.

So in the next 4 years;
4 vs Iowa
4 vs Wisconsin
At least 3 vs nebraska
At least 2 vs everyone else
1 more game against someone else


A “protected” opponent means 4 games in 4 years.
A “2-play” means 2 games in 2 years
Everyone else 1 game in 2 years.
I assume they’ll use the same model in 2026-27 but change all or some of the “2-plays”

 

[cemba99]

It seems weird that the B1G continues to keep Indiana from visiting Minneapolis. One home game against Indiana between 2009 and at least 2025. Meanwhile, the Gophers have visited the Hoosiers several times over the same time period.

One of the challenges of the B1G two division format was that the Purdue-Indiana rivalry game was between teams in each division, which meant that the rest of the Western division would play Indiana less often. Does not explain why we seem to go to Bloomington a lot more than they come here however.

 

[Some guy]

I don’t really care how that works. If we don’t see Indiana often… I don’t care.

Not playing Michigan or Nebraska much is a bigger deal than playing Indiana or Maryland more often.

Will play big ten east minus Michigan state annd Indiana, USC, UCLA every two years instead of playing big ten east every 3 years.
Will play big ten west teams northwestern, Purdue, and Illinois every other year now instead of every year.
Nebraska 3 of the next 4 instead of 4 of the next 4.
Will play Indiana every other year now instead of once every 6 years.
Will play UCLA and USC every other year now instead of never.
Will play Michigan state every other year now instead of 6 years in a row (I think that was the new cross…it was Maryland but had just changed).

 

[Governor Sibley]

Bring back divisions in a 20 team league!

 

[noamfromm]

It seems weird that the B1G continues to keep Indiana from visiting Minneapolis. One home game against Indiana between 2009 and at least 2025. Meanwhile, the Gophers have visited the Hoosiers several times over the same time period.

Gophers have been to Indiana twice and they've been here once in that time frame.

 

[Full Speed Ahead]

So, we have one chance left to win the B1G West Title, and when we do it this year, we'll hold the title forever (since no one ever can take it away from us).

 

[Some guy]

Bring back divisions in a 20 team league!

I think that if they ever went to 18 or 20 they would need to go to some kind of divisional scheduling. Even if they didn’t name divisions. Even if they changed it every year.
But if they actually want a conference champ it would be mathematically necessary.




These three way ties would be great in number and there would also be 4 way ties too in an 18 or 20 team league.

 

[MirandaB]

I hope we don't keep the trend of playing both OSU and Michigan the same year.

 

[Some guy]

I hope we don't keep the trend of playing both OSU and Michigan the same year.

Less of an issue now that there is a third big dog in the conference in my opinion.
I almost would rather play the big 3 all the same year. Because it means in the other year in the two year cycle you play none of the three.

 

[Ope3]

I think that if they ever went to 18 or 20 they would need to go to some kind of divisional scheduling. Even if they didn’t name divisions. Even if they changed it every year.
But if they actually want a conference champ it would be mathematically necessary.




These three way ties would be great in number and there would also be 4 way ties too in an 18 or 20 team league.

I was actually going to ask you if the "3 Unbeaten" thing had been figured out yet. Had a feeling that was an aspect of great interest to you. Just a hunch.

Thanks for posting it.