BIG TEN. BIG NEWS
• The Big Ten will have a new look and feel when it kicks off on Thursday, as the league has grown from 14 to 18 teams with the additions of University of Oregon, UCLA, USC, and University of Washington. The four schools officially joined the Big Ten on Aug. 2.
• The 128th season of Big Ten football will commence this week, as Rutgers, Minnesota, and Illinois kickoff the season on Thursday. Rutgers welcomes Howard to Piscataway, N.J. at 6 p.m. ET, with the Gophers hosting North Carolina at 8 p.m. ET and the Illini welcoming Eastern Illinois to Memorial Stadium at 9 pm. ET.
• Michigan State and Wisconsin will make their debuts on Friday, as the Spartans play host to FIU at 7 p.m. ET, while the Badgers welcome Western Michigan to Madison at 9 p.m. ET. Twelve teams will open the season with Saturday matchups, while USC will meet LSU in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET.
• The 2024 Discover Big Ten Championship Game will be held on Saturday, December 7, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and will be broadcast for the first time on CBS. The winner will represent the conference as the Automatic Qualifier (AQ) to the College Football Playoff.
• The conference announced its 13th annual football preseason honors list, a group which featured nine returning All-Big Ten selections. A media panel selected the 12-member preseason list, with student-athletes representing six programs.
• The 2024 campaign will feature 115 All-Big Ten honorees (first-, second-, third-team or honorable mention) selected by either the coaches or the media last season, with Ohio State and Penn State leading the way with 16 all-conference returnees each, two more than Iowa. Nebraska returns 10 all-conference performers, while both Michigan and Rutgers claim nine honorees on their 2024 rosters.
• The National College Football Awards Association announced the 2024 watch lists July 29-Aug. 13. All 18 schools are represented with Ohio State’s 31 honors leading the way, followed by Michigan’s 22, 19 for Penn State and Oregon with 17.
• In addition to the four coaches leading the Big Ten’s newest teams, Dan Lanning (ORE), DeShaun Foster (UCLA), Lincoln Riley (USC), and Jedd Fisch (WASH), the Big Ten will also welcome three new coaches to the sidelines for the 2024 campaign in Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, Michigan’s Sherrone moore, and Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith.
• The Big Ten finished last season with four teams ranked in the AP Top 25, tied for the third-most of any conference, including a pair of teams ranked in the top 10. The 2024 AP Preseason Poll also features six Big Ten teams in No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Oregon, No. 8 Penn State, No. 9 Michigan, No. 23 USC, and No. 25 Iowa, while Nebraska, Washington, and Wisconsin received votes.
• After topping Iowa 26-0 in the 2023 Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Field, Michigan went on to claim the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship with a 34-13 win over Washington.
