Michigan, Michigan State remain protected football rivals: What we know about new Big Ten
Michigan and Michigan State football will remain protected rivals as the Big Ten begins its westward expansion.
With the conference announcing its 2024 and 2025 schedules Thursday afternoon, the Spartans and Wolverines are among those schools who will maintain their annual series as part of the league’s “Flex Protect Plus” scheduling model as it grows to 16 teams with the additions of UCLA and USC.
Michigan-Ohio State also is one of those protected games as well, with a chance for any of those matchups to have a rematch in the Big Ten championship game with the new format that ends division play after this season.
U-M will host MSU in 2024, and the Spartans host the Wolverines in 2025. The series is one of 11 annual protected rivalries. The Wolverines travel to Columbus in 2024 and host the Buckeyes in 2025.
Dates for Big Ten games the next two years have not yet been released. MSU and U-M play in East Lansing on Oct. 21 this season.
Michigan’s conference games for 2024 are at home against MSU, UCLA, Maryland, Minnesota and Wisconsin along with nonconference games against Fresno State (Aug. 31), Texas (Sept. 7) and Arkansas State (Sept. 21) in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines are on the road at Ohio State, USC, Illinois and Rutgers that season.
U-M in 2025 host OSU, Penn State, Purdue and Northwestern and will travel to MSU, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland and Nebraska. The Wolverines have home games with New Mexico (Aug. 30) and Central Michigan (Sept. 13) and a road game at Oklahoma (Sept. 13) in 2025 nonconference play.
The Spartans in 2024 host Ohio State, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue and Rutgers while going on the road to U-M, Penn State, Maryland and Nebraska. They also play nonconference home games with Florida Atlantic (Aug. 31) and Louisiana (Sept. 15) and on the road at Boston College (Sept. 21).
In 2025, MSU hosts the Wolverines, Nittany Lions, UCLA and Northwestern, and the Spartans will travel to USC, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Spartans have three nonconference home games that season against Western Michigan (Aug. 30), Youngstown State (Sept. 6) and Boston College (Sept. 20).
The Big Ten is eliminating the East-West format, ending the divisional setup the league first debuted in 2011 with the addition of Nebraska. Instead, the top two teams in the overall conference standings at the end of the regular season will advance to the Big Ten Championship game, with the winner earning the league’s title. Tiebreaking procedures will be announced later, according to a release from the conference.
The other annually protected games are Illinois-Northwestern, Illinois-Purdue, Indiana-Purdue, Iowa-Minnesota, Iowa-Nebraska, Iowa-Wisconsin, Maryland-Rutgers, Minnesota-Wisconsin and UCLA-USC. The other two-play opponents for each member institution will change every two years, per the league.
“These matchups were finalized in conjunction with all 16 member institutions to ensure the traditions of the Big Ten Conference remain strong as the conference evolves,” the league wrote in a release.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan, MSU to remain protected rivals in new Big Ten schedule
