Report: Big Ten leaning toward 'Flex Protect' scheduling model in 2024

Wednesday, the Big Ten announced plans to unveil its 2024-25 scheduling model with a special on the Big Ten Network. But the conference hasn’t given much indication on the direction it will go as it prepares to add USC and UCLA.

According to a report from The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach, the league could decide on a unique model.

Auerbach reported the Big Ten could opt for a “Flex Protect” format, which means teams will have a different number of annual opponents. In that model, teams would play between one and three permanent opponents each year to help protect some traditional rivalries. It would also mean the end of the East-West divisional format, which was reportedly likely to end after the 2023 season, anyway.

The Big Ten will still play nine conference games, but the “Flex Protect” model would create more flexibility for the annual schedule and keep “an eye toward competitive balance, home-and-away rotations and the specific challenges around West Coast travel for teams playing USC or UCLA,” Auerbach wrote.

The Big Ten will announce its new schedule with a special edition of B1G Live Thursday afternoon. Commissioner Tony Petitti, new chief operating officer Kerry Kenny and Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith will join B1G Live hosts Mike Hall and Howard Griffith for the announcement, which is set for 4:30 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network.

The Big Ten will reportedly become the latest conference to ditch divisions

There were talks of doing away with divisions in 2023, The Athletic reported in October. The NCAA recently changed its requirements for conference championship eligibility, and multiple leagues — including the ACC — are ditching divisions and putting the top two teams against each other in the conference championship starting this season.

However, as of October 2022, the plan for the Big Ten was to keep divisions in 2023 and restructure in 2024.

“There was strong consideration to revamp from geographic divisions to a single-conference entity for 2023 but there were too many issues to implement for next season,” The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman wrote. “Among the most discussed issues for Big Ten administrators and school officials include the desire to unveil one new system for USC and UCLA rather than in consecutive years, the number of protected games and television concerns.”

If the Big Ten does away with divisions, it’d become the second conference to announce such plans in recent weeks. During the SEC spring meetings late last month, commissioner Greg Sankey announced the league will move to a division-less, eight-game schedule in 2024. However, that might not be the long-term plan and conversations will continue to talk about future schedule models next offseason.