Analysis: Purdue’s 2024-28 B1G football opponents
They’re here! The 2024-28 conference opponents for each Big Ten team.
The league unveiled today league foes for each school (home and away) for the next five seasons: 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, as the Big Ten moves from a 14- to an 18-team conference with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington swelling the ranks beginning next year.
Dates of games will be announced later. Divisions are dead, but the nine conference game format will remain the same.
Beginning in 2024, the Big Ten will pit its top two finishers in the conference championship game. Also of note: The Big Ten will use a five-year cycle to produce the same schedule format where every school plays each other at least once.
Here are our biggest takeaways from the new schedules and how the changes will impact Purdue going forward.
• Purdue won’t play a Big Ten game on the West Coast in 2024. Why? Because it already has a non-conference game scheduled at Oregon State next season. The Beavers opened (and lost) the 2021 season at Purdue.
But Oregon will visit West Lafayette next season, meaning Purdue will meet the Ducks and Beavers in 2024. Oregon and the Boilermakers have played three times, with the Ducks holding a 2-1 advantage. The Boilermakers won in West Lafayette in 1979, while the Ducks swept a two-game series in 2008 (West Lafayette) and 2009 (Eugene).
• Purdue will make its first trip West for a Big Ten game in 2025 when it treks to Washington.
Purdue and Washington have met 10 times with the Huskies holding a 7-1-2 edge. The last two encounters came in bowls, with the Boilermakers taking the 2022 Sun Bowl and the Huskies the 2001 Rose Bowl. The schools had a four-game series from 1987-90, with each hosting two games (1987, ’89 in Seattle; 1988, 1990 in West Lafayette). Washington won all four.
• Purdue’s first trip to California for a Big Ten tilt won’t be until 2026, with it plays at UCLA. This will be the Boilermakers’ first trip to California since a 2017 Foster Farms Bowl win vs. Arizona.
The last time Purdue played the Bruins in Los Angeles was a 31-21 loss in 1979. The last time Purdue and UCLA played was 1980, when the Bruins took a 23-14 decision in Ross-Ade Stadium. Purdue is 0-3-2 all-time vs. the Bruins.
• Indiana and Illinois are protected rivals for Purdue, as it plays the Hoosiers each year for the Old Oaken Bucket and the Fighting Illini for the Cannon.
The Boilermakers lead the all-time series with the Hoosiers, 76-42-6, taking four of the last five encounters. Since 1997, Purdue is 17-8 vs. IU.
Purdue has a 48-45-2 edge all-time vs. the Fighting Illini, winning the last four battles and seven of eight. Since 1994, Purdue is 18-6 vs. Illinois.
• Purdue will play on the West Coast each season from 2024-28. But, again, the trip West in 2024 is for a non-con game vs. Oregon State. The other games West from 2025-28:
2025: Washington
2026: UCLA
2027: Oregon
2028: USC
• The only season a new Pac-12 member won’t visit West Lafayette is 2028.
• Purdue will play Ohio State three times (one home; two road) in the next five years; Michigan twice (one home, one away); Penn State three times (two home; one road).
• The 2024 and 2025 Big Ten schedules will be very challenging with home games vs. Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State and USC to go with road games at Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan and Washington.
In fact, the 2025 schedule could be the toughest in program history with Ohio State, Michigan, Washington and USC, in addition to a game at Notre Dame, which Purdue plays each season from 2024-28.
• Speaking of USC … When the Trojans visit in 2025, it will be USC’s first trip to Ross-Ade Stadium since 1976, a 31-13 Trojan triumph. The Boilermakers and Trojans last played in the 1998 Pigskin Classic in the Coliseum, a 27-17 USC win. The game marked the starting debut of Drew Brees. Purdue is 1-3 all-time vs. USC. The Boilermakers’ lone victory came in the Rose Bowl following the 1966 season.
• The “easiest” season? It may be 2026, with no Ohio State, Michigan and USC. Still, trips to UCLA and Penn State loom, along with visits from Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Washington and Wisconsin.
MORE: What future Big Ten football schedules mean to Purdue
2024 Purdue Big Ten opponents
Home gamesRoad gamesNebraskaIllinoisNorthwesternIndianaOregonMichigan StatePenn StateOhio StateWisconsin
2025 Purdue Big Ten opponents
Home gamesRoad gamesIllinoisMichiganIndianaMinnesotaOhio StateNorthwesternRutgersWashingtonUSC
2026 Purdue Big Ten opponents
Home gamesRoad gamesMarylandIllinoisMinnesotaIndianaWashingtonIowaWisconsinPenn StateUCLA
2027 Purdue Big Ten opponents
Home gamesRoad gamesIllinoisMarylandIndianaNebraskaMichigan StateOhio StatePenn StateOregonUCLA
2028 Purdue Big Ten opponents
Home gamesRoad gamesIowaIllinoisMichiganIndianaNebraskaMichigan StateNorthwesternRutgersUSC
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