Big Ten announces UCLA's 2024-28 conference schedule

UCLA will head east next fall with their move to the Big Ten set to finalize. Now, as of today, we know exactly which teams that the Bruins will come across over the course of their first few years in the conference.

The Big Ten shared UCLA’s conference schedule for next season and through the 2028 campaign.

Earlier this year, the league originally announced a plan and new model where divisions would disappear, two opponents would play home and away in ’24 and ’25, and each school would have protected opponents for each season. However, that had to essentially be scrapped with the additions of Oregon and Washington that changed the number of teams from 16 to 18.

The new model, which is titled as the Flex Protect XVIII, will feature nine conference matchups per season. The programs will play each team, either home or away, every two years and will play a rotation of opponents but none more than three times over the course of five seasons.

This is how the model will look for the Bruins based on their release today:

2024 Opponents

at Nebraska
at Penn State
at Rutgers
at Washington
Indiana
Iowa
Minnesota
Oregon
USC

2024 is going to look fairly familiar for UCLA as they’ll play all of the other three West Coast teams in Washington, Oregon, and USC. They also avoid Ohio State and Michigan with their toughest-looking game against the current Big Ten being a road trip to Penn State. With them getting five home games to start out with in the rotation as well, this could all make for a decent first year in the league for the Bruins.

2025 Opponents

at Indiana
at Michigan State
at Northwestern
at Ohio State
at USC
Maryland
Nebraska
Penn State
Washington

The schedule in 2025 takes a jump up in difficulty to start by flipping over to five road games rather than four. That means their first time making four trips to the Midwest, with their fifth being the 30-minute drive over to Memorial Coliseum, including one to Columbus to play against Ohio State.

2026 Opponents

at Maryland
at Michigan
at Minnesota
at Oregon
Illinois
Michigan State
Purdue
USC
Wisconsin

This is when the schedule will flip for the first time and UCLA will start to see the other half of the league. That means home games against Illinois, Purdue, and Wisconsin but also means their first trip to Ann Arbor and opportunity to play against Michigan.

2027 Opponents

at Illinois
at Iowa
at Purdue
at USC
at Wisconsin
Michigan
Northwestern
Oregon
Rutgers

2027 is set to be the final year of this cycle with each school having played each other once at home and once on the road. That means the Wolverines will be in Los Angeles this time around but also is the second year that the Bruins will travel away for four games away from the Pacific Coast.

2028 Opponents

at Nebraska
at Penn State
at Rutgers
at Washington
Indiana
Maryland
Minnesota
Ohio State
USC

If you notice, all four of UCLA’s away games in ’28 are the same ones that they’ll travel to in ’24, meaning that the cycle has lapped around. The home games are a tad different, though, with Maryland taking the place of Iowa while the Buckeyes will fill in the spot in 2028 that the Ducks will fill in 2024.