Washington Football Big Ten Conference Matchups Released

The Big Ten this morning released revised versions of the football home/away conference matchups for the next 5 years now that Washington and Oregon have been added to the conference.

The rivalry game with the Ducks has been preserved and will be played annually going into the future but Washington will not play the Los Angeles schools every year as well as some had theorized. The Huskies will only get to travel to L.A twice over the next 5 years.

Let’s first look at the 2024 season schedule as that is the most pressing concern. Washington will have one of its most loaded home slates in a long time getting to host Michigan, UCLA, and USC. The non-conference schedule for next year is still incomplete after Ohio State backed out prior to the Huskies switching conferences. Right now there are contests scheduled with Weber State and Eastern Michigan but will need a replacement home game (a task made harder without a full-time AD right now).

The road slate is a mixed bag. The Indiana and Rutgers road trips should be two of the easiest in this new conference alignment. Iowa is always a slog with their defense and special teams. There’s a chance the nepotism at offensive coordinator ends unless the march to 325 picks up its pace. That leaves two big road trips. The normal one down to Eugene. The other to Penn State.

This will be the first ever trip to Happy Valley for the Huskies and you can be sure that a large number of fans will want to make the trip to experience the environment. The Nittany Lions are 3-0 all-time against Washington with one win in Seattle and a pair of bowl victories including most recently the 2017 Fiesta Bowl.

Looking at the other premier team in the Big Ten, Washington will face off at home against Ohio State in 2025 and in Columbus in 2028. That puts back together the home-and-home that OSU backed out of earlier this year. It’s good news for the Huskies that they paid the buyout before those games would’ve ended up being cancelled anyways.

Washington plays Oregon all 5 years but also plays a handful of teams 3 times over this stretch as well in order to make the math work. Everyone else gets played once home and away in that time.

Play 3 times (2 at home): Michigan, USC, UCLA

Play 3 times (2 on road): Indiana, Penn State, Rutgers

That’s a pretty favorable set up for Washington. We’ll see how it looks into the future but right now as previously stated it seems like Indiana and Rutgers would be two of the more manageable road trips. An extra trip to Penn State is tough but getting the L.A schools an extra time at home along with Michigan more than makes up for it and guarantees some great home game action in the future.