Big Ten announces 2016 & 2017 conference football schedules

By Kevin Kelley -

The Big Ten has announced their 2016 and 2017 conference football schedules. The Big Ten Championship Games will be played on December 3 in 2016 and on December 2 in 2017.

Big Ten teams begin playing a nine-game conference schedule in the 2016 season. Each team will play every other team within its division (six games) plus three teams from the opposite division. The only cross-division protected rivalry is Indiana-Purdue.

East Division teams will have five conference home games during even-numbered years, while West Division teams will have five conference home games during odd-numbered years.

Listed below are links to each team’s 2016 and 2017 football schedule.

2016 BIG TEN FOOTBALL SCHEDULES

East Division

West Division

2017 BIG TEN FOOTBALL SCHEDULES

East Division

West Division

Comments (27)

I noticed they switched the two of the end-of-year pairings for 2017. Penn State ends with Maryland and Rutgers ends with Michigan State. I kind of wished they’d leave it consistent.

In 2016 Maryland plays at Michigan, Ohio St., and at Nebraska in consecutive weeks. Seriously? I hope all that money they are getting from the B1G is worth it.

I’ve got to beef about this. For two years (2014-2015) you play the same two schools from the other division and then in 2016, the Big Fourteen makes it more of a round robin. Pretty unfair if you’re assigned a tough pair in 2014-2015. (I.e. Rutgers getting Nebraska and Wisconsin for two years and then getting Nebraska again in 2017).

I noticed the same thing again with Maryland having to play Wisconsin again in 2017 (and at Wisconsin no less). Maryland plays them in 2014-15 as well. By 2017 Maryland will have played everyone in the B1G except Illinois. Along with that game, Maryland also plays at Ohio St. and Texas. Three of the toughest places to play at. Could be a very long fall in College Park in 2017. I hope the money is worth it. And the administration at Maryland wonders why fans don’t like this move……

I think what happened is after 2015, since we are going to a 9 game schedule, the format had to be switched. so the 2014 and 2015 seasons are just a two year format, then it gets re-done in 2016. since the conference had to up it’s conference games, SOME teams will get matched up again with the same team they played in the previous 2 year format. I don’t think there was a way around it, the format can’t work perfectly for everybody.

Unfair, but the ACC is the same. My Hurricanes play FSU every year as their crossover team while Virginia Tech gets Boston College every year. Plus in 2014 when Lville joins Miami will play FSU and at Lville while VT gets Boston College and Wake Forest. HUGE 2 game difference in 2014 for two teams in same division when just playing 8 conf games!

Louisville is going in Maryland’s spot. If Maryland were staying, then those two games you mentioned are FSU and MD. It’s all part of the rotation. There will be a year when it’s VA Tech playing FSU and Miami playing Wake. Wake is in the other division and they will rotate on and off everyone’s schedule except Duke. The crossover game is there to protect a rivalry, this case Miami and FSU who were seperated when division play began. The only real rivals that Tech has are with Miami and Virginia and both of them are in their division. Everyone else has rivals except BC so VA Tech and BC are crossover opponents.

I guess you are all missing the bigger picture. Maryland comes into the Big Ten and will have to “bone up” on football, but within just a few years they will be able to recruit, train, and bring up a squad that will be on par with the Big Ten, and they won’t necessarily be “last every year”

From what I’ve heard, they will plan on having more conference games early in the season. That would accomodate for a bye week later on in the season when it is really needed. They’re just not doing that yet as a lot of teams have already filled those early season games.

The Big Ten wants more interest in the conference early on. That’s why they are going to be having a handful of games earlier in the season, most likely no marquee games, but games that normally would not be that interesting, such as OSU-IU. The conference has lost a lit of appeal as of late so this is part of the push to make the Big Ten matter more… Along with better OOC games and no FCS down the road.

Hey, Rutgers wanted to play in the Big Ten, and so did Maryland….the last time I looked, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Michigan were members! No one complains when the Yankees play the Red Sox 18-19 times a year….it’s called a rivalry! If you cannot stand the heat, then get out of the Kitch-Ten!

I’m no Badger fan, trust me, but I will say they drew the short stick compared to Nebraska when it came to cross division games the first two years. They both play OSU but UW also plays at Michigan and at Michigan State while Nebraska gets Indiana and Maryland for their other two. That’s quite an advantage for the Huskers when it comes to these two playing for the division title.

I noticed in 2017 OSU and Indiana play a division/conference game against each other on September 2nd. They should move that to September 23rd. Nobody else has to open with a division/conference game. Let’s be fair.

I like that they are starting to set up a Rutgers/Maryland rivalry. But, they should end the season EVERY year that way. If not them, Rutgers played Penn State for years when both were independents. It rarely went to Rutgers, but a long series nonetheless.

UofM plays Wisconsin every year starting in 2016 and OSU plays Nebraska every year starting in 2016. Those are crossover games. Maryland crossover is Minnesota and rutgers crossover is Illinois, not that bad.

The only way to stop everyone from complaining about unfair matchups is to either make scheduling easier by adding 2 more schools to make there be 16 schools in the B1G or to only count division games to decide the division winner.

all i hear is crying because your team isn’t any good. worry about showing up each week who cares who you play. If you’re the best you should be able to whip them all so bring on the best.

If you want to play in the BIG ten get ready to play OSU< MSU< PSU<WISCONSIN, AND MICHIGAN and IOWA and NEBRASKA and so forth.