Predicting the Big Ten's 2025 Friday football schedule: Which games will move off Saturdays?

New York Times

21-02-2025

In its first season as an 18-school conference, the Big Ten shifted nine games to Friday nights. This fall, the league is looking to place games on every Friday of the regular season, starting on Aug. 29 and concluding on Black Friday.
But deciding which games should shift from Saturday to Friday is hardly simple. It's a delicate balancing act for the league, its three media partners and the universities. Each school has on-campus concerns the conference must consider before moving a home game off of Saturday. A sampling:
Then there's the league's trio of media partners: Fox, CBS and NBC. Outside of Thanksgiving weekend, the Big Ten's Friday kickoffs appear on the Fox family of networks (Fox, FS1, BTN). But the league doesn't want to move an upper-level game that NBC or CBS might want to draft for its showcase Saturday broadcast.
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'In our mind, we're looking for maybe the fourth-, fifth- or sixth-best game of the week to try and make sure that at least on paper, going into a season, the top three games are going to be available for selection by those three broadcast partners,' Big Ten chief operating officer Kerry Kenny told The Athletic last year.
With those variables in mind, filling out a Friday night schedule is akin to completing a football sudoku puzzle. In attempting one myself, nearly a dozen versions went into the fireplace. I'd reach the season's final week, and somehow a team ended up with a second home Friday game or a significant competitive disadvantage. Eventually, one made it through with the principles intact.
The Big Ten's final version — last year's Friday schedule was set in May at the league's spring meetings — might not look anything like this, but here's an attempt to project which Big Ten games could shift to Friday (and other days) and why, starting on Labor Day weekend.
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More SEC-Big Ten matchups could be on the way
Thursday: Nebraska vs. Cincinnati (in Kansas City); Buffalo at Minnesota
Friday: Western Michigan at Michigan State; Miami (Ohio) at Wisconsin
Labor Day Sunday: Colorado State at Washington
The Thursday games above are already set. Minnesota traditionally opens the season on a Thursday because the state fair commands a major presence in the Twin Cities that weekend. Nebraska faces Cincinnati at Arrowhead Stadium, but that will count as a Big 12 home game and could appear on Fox, ESPN or TNT. It's possible Illinois also could shift its season opener against Western Illinois to Thursday.
Michigan State has opened its season on a Friday every year but one since 2011 (setting aside the COVID-19-altered 2020 schedule). It seems reasonable to expect the Spartans to do the same this year against Western Michigan. Wisconsin also has kicked off its season on a Friday in five of the last eight years. It's likely those games would incorporate staggered start times on different networks.
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The Big Ten plans to schedule a game on Labor Day Sunday starting this season, but there's not much inventory left over after Texas at Ohio State and Utah at UCLA. Perhaps the best choice featuring a Group of 5 opponent includes Colorado State at Washington. The logistics make sense in part because the Huskies play at home the following Saturday against a Football Championship Subdivision opponent.
This is the Big Ten's weakest week for its network partners, with its three best games — Michigan at Oklahoma, Iowa at Iowa State, Illinois at Duke — controlled by other leagues' media contracts. The Big Ten's two power-conference home games (Oklahoma State at Oregon, Boston College at Michigan State) will likely be Saturday selections by the linear networks, with ratings drivers Ohio State and Penn State hosting Grambling and Florida International, respectively.
Of the remaining contenders for Friday, Georgia Southern and former Trojans coach Clay Helton at USC is the best option. The Trojans open the season against Missouri State, which makes the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision this year. Playing on Friday before traveling to Purdue in Week 3 would allow USC an extra day of rest.
As with Week 2, the Big Ten slate is light on games within its control. There are two conference games, but it makes sense to keep them available on Saturday for media partners, although NBC is likely to air Texas A&M at Notre Dame in primetime. Both nonconference games against power-conference teams are on the road, so that limits the overall supply, especially with Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State all hosting lower-level opponents.
Although this doesn't figure to be a competitive matchup, Indiana has an awkward home schedule that might prevent it from hosting a Big Ten opponent on a Friday.
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There are games this weekend with higher profiles, but a mid-September Friday in Madison for a Big Ten opponent has some appeal. If schools agreed to host a second conference game on Friday, that might bring Michigan State at USC or even Oregon State at Oregon into play.
There's a theme with many of these potential Friday games: There are some good matchups available, but they often don't fit for a variety of reasons. USC at Illinois and Ohio State at Washington are stronger on paper, but UCLA-Northwestern has appeal. Both have second-year coaches, and it's the Wildcats' second and final year at their makeshift stadium along Lake Michigan.
Four of the seven Big Ten games on this weekend are homecoming dates, so that limits Friday availability. Without regard to circumstances, Penn State at UCLA would be the choice. However, the Nittany Lions play Oregon the previous week in a likely night game. Due to the short airport runway in University Park, Penn State must bus the team nearly two hours to Harrisburg just to fly to the West Coast. The logistical hurdles make a short week just a little more difficult for Penn State than for Washington.
This choice might invite double-takes. Both teams enter the season CFP contenders, which typically would vault this into Fox's noon window. So why is it here? This week's slate has two West Coast games Fox cannot air in that time slot: Michigan at USC and Indiana at Oregon. Iowa at Wisconsin would fit in perfectly on Friday night, but it's one of three homecoming games throughout the Big Ten. So, Fox could maximize its choices by drafting the 104th edition of Ohio State-Illinois into Friday prime time and then air the 99th installment of the Iowa-Wisconsin rivalry on Big Noon. Ohio State-Illinois would have the potential to set a Friday ratings record for Fox; last year's high was 4.21 million viewers for Illinois-Nebraska.
Six days after beating Ohio State last fall, Oregon traveled to Purdue for a Friday game, a blowout that finished No. 3 in Fox's Big Ten Friday night viewership for the 2024 season. It's a similar scenario here, with the Ducks hosting Indiana the previous week. Nebraska at Minnesota was my preference, but it didn't work out with the other options.
Last year, Rutgers traveled to USC for a late-night game that served as shoulder programming for Game 1 of the World Series. This is the perfect opportunity to do it again. Although the 11 p.m. ET kickoff was challenging for Rutgers, there was perfect symmetry with the New York Yankees playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. (A Chicago Cubs-Seattle Mariners World Series, anyone?) Illinois is idle the previous week, so the late kickoff would not be too disruptive, and the Illini would get an extra day of recovery.
The Spartans-Gophers matchup has some sneaky elements that put it in competition for the week's No. 2 game behind Penn State at Ohio State. Plus, Huntington Bank Stadium's Dinkytown location could make for quite the atmosphere on Halloween.
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The Bruins upset the Huskers in Lincoln last year, and the return trip promises two iconic uniforms that mix well together. Nebraska fans may take over the Rose Bowl and turn this into a virtual home game.
There are several contenders for this spot, including Penn State at Michigan State, Wisconsin at Indiana and Minnesota at Oregon. The Hawkeyes have yet to play on Friday night in this predicted slate, so they're the choice here against USC. It would mark the second straight season Iowa would play in Los Angeles on a Friday.
The Big Ten is keeping the West Coast teams in their home region for the final two weeks, which opens the door for a pair of old Pac-12 rivalries. To land this game, Fox might have to draft it high. But it's only fair considering the network cannot broadcast high-quality games on the West Coast in its noon window.
The Huskers and Hawkeyes will square off on Black Friday for the 15th consecutive year. Outside of Ohio State-Michigan, there are plenty of options for the league's other Friday game. Indiana and Purdue have an off week leading into Thanksgiving, but will the Boilermakers be competitive enough for that highly visible window? In this case, Penn State could be playing for a CFP spot, and that has value to the networks.