Who has the easiest, hardest Big Ten schedules? Ranking all 18, from Wisconsin to Michigan

[MisterGopher]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6570309/2025/08/26/big-ten-football-schedule-strength-rankings/

With 18 teams under the Big Ten umbrella, the conference’s schedules have more disparity now than ever before. Eight of Wisconsin’s nine conference opponents this fall ranked in the top 50 of Chris Vannini’s preseason Athletic 136 rankings. Meanwhile, Michigan faces just one team that had a winning Big Ten record in 2024. The Badgers and Wolverines meet Oct. 4 in Ann Arbor.

To properly rank which members have the most challenging Big Ten schedule, we took into account the 2024 records of each team’s slate of home and road conference opponents, along with the average ranking of those opponents in the preseason Athletic 136. For full-season context, the total numbers of preseason AP Top 25 opponents and Athletic 136 top-50 opponents are listed below the league-specific metrics. We’ve also included overall strength of schedule rankings from The Athletic’s Austin Mock, tabulating how likely an average top-12 team would be to win every game on a particular team’s schedule.

So, here’s how the Big Ten schedule shakes out in three tiers, ranging from the most difficult to the easiest.

Easiest Tier​

16. Minnesota

Home opponents' 2024 B1G record	13-32
Road opponents' 2024 B1G record	24-12
Avg TA136 ranking of B1G opponents	48.2
TA136 top-50 opponents	4
Preseason AP Top 25 opponents	2

The Gophers won the schedule lottery if they’re trying to make a bowl game. Only one of their five home Big Ten opponents won even four conference games last year. But it’s a challenging schedule toward winning a Big Ten title, with trips to Ohio State, Oregon and Iowa. Those are the only three Power 4 teams on Minnesota’s schedule that won at least eight games last fall.

Austin Mock’s overall schedule rank: No. 11 in Big Ten, No. 29 in FBS