Big Ten time: USC Football receives first new conference schedule


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The Trojans have a lot of tough opponents for their first season in the Big Ten. (Vincent Leo | Daily Trojan file photo)

The Big Ten has announced USC’s full slate of opponents for the 2024 football season. With USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten in 2024, there are numerous schedule changes for both the Los Angeles schools and the conference.

The 2024 football season will debut a “Flex Protect Plus” model, which means the end of divisions in the Big Ten. Under this model, teams will play nine intraconference games per season and will compete against every other conference team at least twice in a four-year period.

Since divisions are no more, similar to the current Pac-12 model, the two teams at the top of the overall conference standings at the end of the regular season will play each other in the Big Ten Football Championship Game.

The model also attempts to protect traditional rivalries by guaranteeing certain games every season. The Trojans’ protected matchup will be with UCLA, and the game will rotate between a home and away game each year.

Beyond traveling to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA in 2024, USC will play Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin at home and make the trek to Maryland, Northwestern, Penn State and Purdue for its remaining conference road games.

The Trojans are also scheduled to play Notre Dame, LSU and San Jose State as non-conference opponents to round out their 2024 schedule. 

These games are two seasons away, which means teams might look very different at the start of 2024 than they do now, but the 2024 schedule seems daunting for the Trojans. Five of their 12 opponents — UCLA, Notre Dame, Michigan, LSU and Penn State — were ranked in the final AP Top 25 rankings from Jan. 9. Four others received votes in the final rankings, but not enough to make it into the Top 25.

USC’s 2025 schedule is, on paper, similarly difficult. The Trojans will take on Indiana, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State and UCLA at home and play Minnesota, Ohio State, Rutgers and Wisconsin on the road. Their non-conference schedule includes a road trip to Notre Dame and welcomes back two former USC head coaches to the Coliseum, with the Trojans taking on Georgia Southern and Ole Miss at home. 

Clay Helton — USC’s head coach between 2015-2021 — is now the Georgia Southern head coach, and Lane Kiffin — who coached the Trojans from 2010-2013 — now heads the Ole Miss program.

The Trojans have one more season left in the Pac-12 before they bolt to the Big Ten. Their 2023 campaign begins Aug. 26 with a home game against San Jose State.