The Big Ten missed an easy scheduling opportunity for 2024.
USC and Ohio State will not play when the Trojans join the conference in 2024 – a matchup that will have to wait until the 2025 season. That means no "Fight On" in The Shoe and no "Buckeye Battle Cry" in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, at least for a year.
Is that a wide miss? Is this what USC had in mind when it took the Big Ten television money along with UCLA and left the Pac-12? After all, when the Trojans played the Buckeyes at Ohio Stadium on Sept. 12, 2009 – it drew a 7.3 Nielsen rating on ESPN — the network's highest-rated game in 15 years at the time.
That would have been the perfect way to usher in the 16-team, no-division, flex-protect plus Big Ten schedule model. It would have made for the ultimate Week 1 game, too. After all, Ohio State and USC have met the Rose Bowl seven times in their legendary rivalry. Lincoln Riley, Ryan Day and their wide-open offenses would have made for great television. On top of that, it would have been a subtle one-up to the SEC, as in, "See what we're willing to do?"
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Instead, the message from the Big Ten's schedule unveiling for 2024 and 2025 is the same message that it has been giving off since the Ten-Year War. The conference might stretch from coast to coast, but USC and UCLA are about to find out that it still revolves around The Game between Ohio State and Michigan.
Should USC and Ohio State play every year? Maybe, but the reality is USC and UCLA will play Ohio State and Michigan once every two years for the foreseeable future in the flex-protect model. The Bruins play Ohio State at home and Michigan on the road in 2024. They will not play either team in 2025.
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The Wolverines coming to the LA Memorial Coliseum is more than a consolation prize for the Trojans. After all, it is the most-frequent Rose Bowl matchup with eight – and the Wolverines are on top of the Big Ten right now with Jim Harbaugh. It's just not going to happen every year, and the reasons will come in the form of travel concerns.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said on the BTN schedule release show that the focus was "you want to respect tradition and history, even as you are expanding the conference." The message from the schedule is that the Big Ten is going to protect Ohio State and Michigan, and it's on USC and UCLA to earn that standing within the new conference. Maybe, in time, a rivalry develops organically.
The Big Ten loves its home-grown rivalries. That was reflected in the protected rivalry games – which includes several of the games that come with those trophies Big Ten fans love so much. The Paul Bunyan Trophy (Michigan-Michigan State), Paul Bunyan's Axe (Wisconsin-Minnesota) and Floyd of Rosedale (Iowa-Minnesota) will be contested every year. Iowa has three protected rivalry games. That's something Big Ten outsiders might not understand – and that includes the two blue-blood additions the conference made in the last 30 years.
Here are the Big Ten's protected rivalry games, which will be played on an annual basis — while all other matchups rotate: https://t.co/4FiKEWdSOV pic.twitter.com/1EMB7Kc64N
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) June 8, 2023
If USC and UCLA fans have questions about the protected pecking order, then they can ask Penn State and Nebraska how that works.
The Nittany Lions joined the conference in 1993 and established rivalries with Ohio State and Michigan. Now, Penn State has no protected games and will not play the Wolverines and Buckeyes every year. The Huskers joined the Big Ten in 2011 – then they were moved to the Big Ten West in 2014. They don't play Ohio State and Michigan every year either. The Huskers' protected rivalry game is Iowa.
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Those schools came to the conference thinking they would play those big-money games every year. It didn't necessarily work out that way. Ohio State has Michigan as its only protected rival. The Wolverines have Michigan State.
According to Sports Media Watch, The Game between Michigan and Ohio State drew 17.1 million viewers last year – which was slightly less than the 17.2 million viewers that watched Georgia and TCU in the CFP championship game. The TCU-Michigan Fiesta Bowl semifinal drew 21.7 million viewers. The Ohio State-Georgia Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl drew 22.4 million. The regular-season matchup between USC-UCLA drew 4.5 million viewers last year. That alone lets you know who is worth protecting more.
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Of course, there will be that possibility of seeing the Buckeyes and Wolverines in the Big Ten championship game. That is a new wrinkle to the division-less model – which will come with trial and error for the first two seasons in the 12-team playoff era.
Hey, the Big Ten has come a long way from the Legends and Leaders. Adding USC and UCLA was the right move, and the Trojans and Bruins will adjust to their new surroundings.
It's still a miss not to cut that ribbon with the Trojans and Buckeyes in 2024, but perhaps they will both make the Big Ten championship game instead.
A Rose Bowl rivalry renewed in Indianapolis.
If that doesn't describe college football 2024, then what does?