Big Ten announces Michigan football's conference schedule through 2028

With conference expansion has come plenty of changes to future scheduling. Now we have a little better idea what that looks like for the Michigan football schedule going forward.

On Thursday, the league office announced the future Michigan football schedules through the 2028 season. That gives us the first handful of iterations of the new Big Ten schedule with the addition of some new conference members.

The league officially adds Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington with the start of the 2024 season, and Michigan will have matchups with all of them at various points. Let’s dig into Michigan’s schedule below.

Michigan Football Schedule – Big Ten

2024:

Home: Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Oregon, USC
Away: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Washington

2025:

Home: Ohio State, Purdue, Washington, Wisconsin
Away: Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, USC

2026:

Home: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State, UCLA
Away: Minnesota, Ohio State, Oregon, Rutgers

2027:

Home: Illinois, Ohio State, Oregon, Rutgers
Away: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State, UCLA

2028:

Home: Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern, USC
Away: Ohio State, Purdue, Washington, Wisconsin

Michigan Football Schedule Analysis

One of the things that becomes instantly clear with the new conference schedule is just how much the addition of the new opponents creates some spacing in the timing of meetings. For example, in the next five years, Michigan will face Penn State and Wisconsin only twice.

Meanwhile, the Wolverines will get a good dose of the new West coast schools. Oregon, USC and Washington all appear on the schedule three times in the next five years.

The number of home games and away games will obviously change from year to year, and Michigan starts with a home-heavy slate in 2024, so there are three years with five home games and only four road games.

For most of the non-permanent opponents on the Michigan football schedule, they will appear either two or three times in the next five years.