Welcome to the Big Ten: Major takeaways from Oregon’s 2024 schedule release
On Thursday afternoon, the official Big Ten schedule was finally released for the 2024 season. While earlier in the year we got a look at which teams everyone would be playing for the next several year, we now have an actual set of dates for when each game in the 2024 season will take place.
As you would assume, this is some very important information to process.
Bye weeks, tough matchups, and rest advantages all come into play now that we can see when each school will be taking their biggest road trips and playing their most important games. There are a ton of takeaways to get into, so let’s go ahead and dive right in.
A New Face in Rivalry Week
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The rivalry game between Oregon and Washington is officially rising to rivalry status, scheduled to be played as the final game of the regular season for both teams during what is widely known as rivalry weekend in the world of college football.
That was one of the biggest questions going into next year, with the Ducks losing their annual game against Oregon State, and the Huskies losing their annual game against Washington State. Now the two will meet at the end of the year, which feels very appropriate.
No Oregon State
It was always expected, but now it is confirmed that the Oregon Ducks will not play the Oregon State Beavers in the 2024 season. Without a conference game, it would have forced the Ducks to schedule Oregon State for one of their non-conference games before the conference schedule started, and the two sides were unable or unwilling to work it out in time for the schedule release.
We will see if that rivalry gets scheduled again in the future, but for now we wait.
A Long and Brutal Stretch
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It’s pretty fair to say that the Ducks didn’t get shown any favoritism by the Big Ten conference, with Oregon being the only team that will play eight straight weeks during the 2024 season. Starting on September 28 with UCLA, the Ducks will play through until their bye week on November 23rd. During that span of games, they will face the likes of Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
That’s not an easy stretch, by any means.
Mark Your Calendar for October 12th
There are a few standout days in the calendar next year that college football fans are going to need to block off entirely to enjoy all of the action. We are going to go through them one by one.
The first is on October 12th. On that day, we will get the Oregon Ducks hosting the Ohio State Buckeyes, the USC Trojans hosting the Penn State Nittany Lions, and the Iowa Hawkeyes hosting the Washington Huskies.
This is hardly the best single day of football that we will get in 2024, but it is going to be hard to do anything else when those matchups are on in prime time.
Mark Your Calendar for November 2nd
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This may be the single best day of the regular season in 2024.
On November 11th, we get the Michigan Wolverines hosting the Oregon Ducks, the Penn State Nittany Lions hosting the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Washington Huskies hosting the USC Trojans, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers hosting the UCLA Bruins.
That sounds like a group of New Year’s Six caliber bowl games just off the top. What a day of college football that will be.
Mark Your Calendar for November 30th
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The final must-watch day of the year comes, of course, in rivalry week on November 30th.
During that weekend, we get the Oregon Ducks hosting the Washington Huskies, the Ohio State Buckeyes hosting the Michigan Wolverines, and the Iowa Hawkeyes hosting the Nebraska Cornhuskers, among others. With potential trips to the Big Ten Championship game on the line, all eyes will be on the conference on that weekend.
Time Zone Watch
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We knew that travel was going to be something to watch for the teams on the West Coast in the Big Ten next year, and it’s apparent early on that it could be a big factor for the Oregon Ducks.
Credit to The Oregonian’s James Crepea for finding this stat:
Every Eastern time zone team that plays at Oregon, UCLA, USC or Washington will have a bye either before or after its 3 time zone trip.
Oregon does not get that courtesy from Big Ten for its 2 trips to ET. Washington did for 1 of its 3 ET trips. UCLA and USC each did for 1 of 2.— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) November 2, 2023
Basically, the majority of teams traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast for games typically got a bye week to rest before making the trip, where as the same advantage was not always given to West Coast teams traveling east. With a conference that spans all time zones, it’s not a surprise that some teams had to take the brunt of the load in the first year. We will see if that balances out in years to come.
When are the Bye Weeks?
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Fans need to remember that the Oregon Ducks are playing in Week Zero to start the 2024 season, traveling to Hawaii to take on the Rainbow Warriors. This gives them two bye weeks during the season.
The first bye comes in Week 4 before kicking off their Big Ten schedule with a game against the UCLA Bruins down in the Rose Bowl. The second bye comes in Week 12, precluding a matchup against the Washington Huskies in rivalry week.
I think that Oregon fans should be happy about the Week 12 bye, but would love to see that first bye change from Week 4 to somewhere around Week 6 to break up that long stretch of games in the middle.
A Tough Welcome for USC
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Welcome to the Big Ten, USC.
The Trojans don’t have the easiest schedule to start out their conference play in 2024, facing Michigan, Wisconsin, and Penn State in the first four weeks of their conference schedule. Fortunately, USC does miss both Oregon and Ohio State in 2024, so they can at least not have to worry about those potential tough matchups.
A Tough Finish for Washington
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While USC’s schedule is really tough to start the year, the Washington Huskies have a pretty brutal finish to the season. Though they get a bye in Week 12 before the Oregon game, the final four contests in the regular season for the Huskies are against USC, Penn State, UCLA, and Oregon.
With a potential trip to the Big Ten Championship game hanging in the balance, that is not an easy stretch of games to close the season with.
