Who’s in the Big Ten? Explaining conference realignment, new schedules and more

You could have told me a lot of things three years ago, but the Big Ten having teams in all four time zones in the Lower 48 would have been a complete shock. Admittedly, I had no idea that the western third of Nebraska was in Mountain Time. You learn something every day, right? Well, if you love learning things in addition to watching some absolutely amazing college football, I have you covered.

I have already broken down all the major changes that took place in my conference of the SEC (Go Dawgs!), but I am more than willing to lend a hand and help out my fellow Power Two brothers and sisters. For little bit, I too lived in Big Ten Country. I saw first-hand how passionate college football fans are in the Midwest from my days of living in Chicago. Saturdays felt different in that city, too.

So what I am going to do today is outline who the new members are in the Big Ten, where they came from and how they got there, as well as any new changes to the league that you probably need to know about. Finally, I will finish this up with who the Associated Press, the coaches and I guess the Big Ten media thinks definitely, maybe might be good this college football season in this big conference.

Let's start with the active membership of the Big Ten Conference. There are four new members.

Current Big Ten membership

Here is a table outlining every member of the Big Ten, what year they joined and where they play.

New Big Ten members

The Big Ten has gradually expanded from its original founding members, to the 18 teams it has now. Chicago, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin were all founding members in 1896. It first expanded to nine teams in 1899 with the additions of Indiana and Iowa. In 1907, Michigan was kicked out of the Big Ten for refusing to adhere to scheduling and eligibility rules.

In 1912, Ohio State joined the conference as full-time members to bring it back to nine teams. Michigan would then rejoin to make it 10 teams, hence the name for the conference: The Big Ten. Then in 1947, Chicago decided to deemphasize athletics after World War II. The conference when then be known as the Big Nine until Michigan State joined the league as a full-time member in 1950.

The league waited until 1990 to expand again by adding former national independent and A-10 member Penn State to make it 11 teams. Nebraska left the Big 12 to join the Big Ten to make it a 12-team league. Maryland and Rutgers came aboard in 2014 from the ACC and Big East respectively to make it a 14-team league. Then, the latest and craziest wave of conference realignment happened.

With UCLA and USC agreeing to become full-time members in 2024, it set in motion the demise of the Pac-12. The remaining 10 schools tried to stay together, but eight ended up leaving. Oregon and Washington followed UCLA and USC to the Big Ten. Stanford and Cal joined the ACC. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah joined the Big 12, leaving Oregon State and Washington State left for dead.

Former Big Ten members

As stated above, the only school to ever leave the Big Ten was the Chicago Maroons. As it was the case with teams like the Sewanee Tigers and the Tulane Green Wave in the old SEC, Chicago struggled to keep pace with the financial requirements to field a competitive athletics department. Like Sewanee, it deemphasis has many people forgetting that Chicago used to have a football team.

Big Ten divisions

As is the case with every Power Four league, there are no divisions in the Big Ten anymore. This is because of the four new schools coming in from the Pac-12. The Big Ten initially had something stupid called the Leaders and Legends divisions, but nobody remembers who was in either. For several years, the 14-team Big Ten was split in half with the old Big Ten East and the Big Ten West.

The two Indiana teams were split in separate divisions with IU in the East and Purdue in the West, but still played each other annually for the Old Oaken Bucket. While it was good in theory, the Big Ten East was far better than the Big Ten West. The Big Ten West champion never beat the Big Ten East champion whenever they played in Indianapolis. Thus, it is why they went away from divisions entirely.

How the Big Ten schedule works

Scheduling rules

With the four Pac-12 newcomers, the Big Ten has adopted something called the Flex Protect XVIII model. It protects a series of annual football rivalries, while allowing greater rotation among the 18 teams in a nine-game conference schedule. This model will allow for every team in the league to play everyone else home and away once, but never more than three times during any five-year window.

The model tries to account for travel, competitive balance and flexibility in a new era of the sport.

Here are the 12 protected rivalries that will be played annually in the Big Ten going forward:

• Illinois-Northwestern
• Illinois-Purdue
• Indiana-Purdue
• Iowa-Minnesota
• Iowa-Nebraska
• Iowa-Wisconsin
• Maryland-Rutgers
• Michigan-Michigan State
• Michigan-Ohio State
• Minnesota-Wisconsin
• Oregon-Washington
• UCLA-USC

As you can see, Iowa has three protected rivalries, which I am sure is going to go over so very well...

Upcoming Big Ten schedules

The Big Ten has released its conference schedules for 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 to play out the entire five-year rotating model in the Flex Protect XVIII as previously stated above. Check it out!

Big Ten Championship Game tiebreakers

Tie-breaking criteria in order

So with the Big Ten doing away with divisions, it creates an even greater importance on tiebreakers since the two best teams in the conference will be playing for the right to play in the expanded College Football Playoff. Here are the six tie-breaking procedures, listed in order of importance.

1. Head-to-head matchups
2. Record vs. all common conference opponents
3. Record vs. common conference opponent, starting with teams with best conference record, working their way down to the ones with the worst
4. Strength of schedule, based on record of all conference opponents' combined winning percentage in conference play
5. "The highest ranking by SportsSource Analytics" after the end of the regular season
6. The commissioner will then draw a team after all tie-breaking procedures have failed

The first four are pretty much the same for every league, but last few ones are always so wacky.

Big Ten head coaches

Here is a list of every Big Ten head coach, what team they lead and how long they have been there.

New Big Ten head coaches

There are seven new head coaches to the Big Ten. Four are coming over from the Big 12, including two that are new to their roles. The other three include a promotion from within, and two outside hires all together. Let's start with the head coaches leading the four Pac-12 newcomers to get that settled.

Dan Lanning and Lincoln Riley are entering year three of leading the Oregon Ducks and the USC Trojans, respectively. DeShaun Foster came back to his alma mater of UCLA after briefly becoming the running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders. He replaces his former boss in Chip Kelly, who abruptly left the Bruins to go be the offensive coordinator for his protege Ryan Day at Ohio State.

Jedd Fisch replaces former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer, who left Seattle to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. Prior to taking over at U-Dub, Fisch had been the head coach of former Pac-12 school Arizona, now in the new Big 12. He had been an assistant at several different spots during his coaching career, most notable at UCLA, the New England Patriots and his alma mater of Florida.

Like David Braun at Northwestern last year, Sherrone Moore replaces his former boss at Michigan. Pat Fitzgerald's termination was highly controversial, as was the reason why Jim Harbaugh decided to leave his alma mater for the NFL. Moore was the offensive coordinator, offensive line coach and the interim head coach for the Wolverines previously, going 4-0 at various times in the interim in 2023.

Aa far as the two true new additions are concerned, Curt Cignetti comes over from James Madison to replace Tom Allen. Jonathan Smith left his alma mater of Oregon State in the wake of the Pac-12 collapsing to serve as the long-term replacement for Mel Tucker. Tucker was fired due to scandal last year. Smith takes over for Spartans interim head coach Harlon Barnett, who is now at Northwestern.

Former Big Ten head coaches

Since Kalen DeBoer and Chip Kelly were never Big Ten head coaches, we are not counting them in this exercise. I will now touch on what happened to Tom Allen, Jim Harbaugh, Mel Tucker and I guess Harlon Barnett. Allen was fired at Indiana, but landed a great job as James Franklin's defensive coordinator at Penn State. He replaces Manny Diaz, who is now back in the ACC coaching at Duke.

Harbaugh left Michigan behind for another stab at leading an NFL team. He is in his very early 60s and enthusiastic as hell. He had several suitors, despite their potentially being scandal coming from his tumultuous end at Michigan. He is now leading the Los Angeles Chargers, one of the last teams he played for in his pro career out of Michigan. Harbaugh replaces a total fraud in one Brandon Staley.

As for Michigan State, I have already mentioned that interim head coach Harlon Barnett is now coaching up the defensive backs for David Brauin at Northwestern. With Mel Tucker having been fired in disgrace, he is currently unemployed. Although he was also a head coach previously at Colorado, as well as a fantastic defensive coordinator in college and pro, he might be a bit of persona non grata.

Big Ten in the rankings

Preseason AP poll

Here is a list of every team in the Big Ten ranked inside the top 25 of the Preseason AP Poll:

• 2. Ohio State Buckeyes (1,490 votes, 15 first-place votes)
• 3. Oregon Ducks (1,403 votes, 1 first-place vote)
• 8. Penn State Nittany Lions (1,060 votes)
• 9. Michigan Wolverines (995 votes)
• 23. USC Trojans (172 votes)
• 25. Iowa Hawkeyes (140 votes)

And here is a list of every unranked Big Ten team that received at least one vote in the AP Top 25:

• Washington Huskies (23 votes)
• Nebraska Cornhuskers (16 votes)
• Wisconsin Badgers (15 votes)

Preseason coaches poll

Here is a list of every Big Ten team that was ranked in the US LBM Coaches Poll:

• 2. Ohio State Buckeyes (1,302 points, 7 first-place votes)
• 3. Oregon Ducks (1,228 points)
• 8. Michigan Wolverines (994 points, 1 first-place votes)
• 9. Penn State Nittany Lions (889 points)
• 23. USC Trojans (199 points)
• 25. Iowa Hawkeyes (148 points)

And here is a list of every Big Ten team that received at least one vote in the Coaches Poll:

• Washington Huskies (123 points)
• Wisconsin Badgers (17 points)
• Maryland Terrapins (5 points)
• Nebraska Cornhuskers (2 points)

Big Ten media poll

To be totally transparent, there is no officially Big Ten media poll, so Cleveland.com shall do here!

1. Ohio State Buckeyes (480 points, 21 first-place votes)
2. Oregon Ducks (448 points, 6 first-place votes)
3. Penn State Nittany Lions (418 points)
4. Michigan Wolverines (411 points)
5. Iowa Hawkeyes (363 points)
6. USC Trojans (346 points)
7. Wisconsin Badgers (313 points)
8. Nebraska Cornhuskers (293 points)
9. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (249 points)
10. Washington Huskies (236 points)
11. Maryland Terrapins (185 points)
12. Minnesota Golden Gophers (183 points)
13. Illinois Fighting Illini (145 points)
14. Northwestern Wildcats (138 points)
15. UCLA Bruins (124 points)
16. Michigan State Spartans (119 points)
17. Indiana Hoosiers (76 points)
18. Purdue Boilermakers (65 points)

Now that you know everything there is to know about the Big Ten, you have some games to watch!