OMAHA (KMTV) — The Big Ten Conference announced they will no longer use the divisional format for football starting in the 2024 season.
The Big Ten will use a "Flex Protect Plus model," which means each school will play one particular divisional opponent every year, a "guaranteed protected matchup," and rotate two other divisional opponents every two years, called "two-play."
The Huskers' guaranteed protected matchup every year will be against Iowa.
Their two-play opponents for 2024 and 2025 are Minnesota and UCLA.
Each Big Ten team will play a total of nine conference games per season.
The season will end with the Big Ten Championship game featuring the top two teams in the conference.
USC and UCLA will join the conference then as well, expanding it to 16 teams.
Here are the Huskers' 2024 conference opponents:
- Iowa (away)
- Northwestern (away)
- Penn State (away)
- Purdue (away)
- UCLA (away)
- Indiana (home)
- Michigan State (home)
- Minnesota (home)
- Wisconsin (home)
Here are the Huskers' 2025 conference opponents:
- Maryland (away)
- Minnesota (away)
- Ohio State (away)
- USC (away)
- Illinois (home)
- Iowa (home)
- Michigan (home)
- Rutgers (home)
- UCLA (home)
