Kicking off the list we have the Ohio State Buckeyes hosting the Nebraska Cornhuskers. This one could be a bit lopsided: Ohio State is the far better team. We’ll have to wait until the season to see if five-star freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola wins the Nebraska starting job. If he does, there’s a chance he could make some magic happen on the road in Columbus.

The first nonconference matchup of this list is a Week 0 game between Penn State and West Virginia. These two teams met in nonconference play last year as well, and the Nittany Lions smoked West Virginia in Beaver Stadium. This year, the Mountaineers are looking to give it back to Penn State. Although the Nittany Lions are probably the better team, anything can happen in Week 0 since most teams will not have come into their own yet.

LSU is taking on both Los Angeles Big Ten schools this September, and the first one on this list is Tigers-Bruins in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. UCLA will be in a rebuilding year after losing its head coach and starting quarterback, but it will still be fun to watch these two historic programs meet on the field for the second time ever. Their first meeting was in 2021 when the Bruins beat the Tigers, 38-27, in the Rose Bowl.

Next up we have the first rivalry matchup of the list with Michigan set to host Michigan State in late October. This rivalry has reached a rolling boil the last few years, with a brawl occurring in the tunnel after the Wolverines handily beat the Spartans in their 2022 matchup. It doesn’t look like Michigan State will have the best roster this season, but, hopefully, this will still make for a good game.

USC’s first appearance on the list is its late-season rivalry matchup with the UCLA Bruins. In 2023, the Bruins took down the Trojans in their home stadium, so this year USC seeks revenge. Since last season, the Trojans have hired a new defensive coordinator, and they’ll hope to have a much better defense than a year ago. If the defense can improve, USC should win this game.

The first Oregon Ducks game on the list is their first conference game of the season, against the UCLA Bruins. As I said, UCLA will not have the strongest team this year, but this game will still be a fun way to kick off the Big Ten season for a few reasons. This will be the Ducks’ and the Bruins’ first meeting since their thrilling matchup in 2022 when Oregon beat UCLA to move to No. 8 in the AP Poll. It will also be Oregon’s first time playing in the Rose Bowl since 2021, when Mario Cristobal was the Ducks’ head coach.

This game will be an interesting matchup because both teams will look a lot different than they did last season. The Badgers are replacing seven starters on the offensive side of the ball, and they’ll be quarterbacked by Miami transfer Tyler van Dyke. The Hawkeyes are losing some of their best defensive players, but I’d still expect Iowa to have an elite defense and a so-so offense at best. This is the first game on the list I can see going either way, depending on how both teams are playing through the first two months of the season.

On Sunday of Week 0, USC will host LSU in the third matchup between the two historic football programs. The last game between the Trojans and the Tigers was in 1984, a game that went to the Tigers. In 2024, the Tigers will definitely be the favorites in this game, but USC should also be a much better team than in 2023, which should make this a fun game.

This game will be a true test of Iowa’s defense since the Buckeyes will have one of the toughest offenses in the country. But with Iowa, there’s always a chance its defense will be a steel curtain. If that’s how this matchup plays out, the Buckeyes could be in trouble, especially if the Iowa offense is able to take a step up this year.

Another classic rivalry we have to look forward to next year is the USC Trojans versus the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. This rivalry matchup has played out 91 times since it began in 1928, making it feel almost as old as college football itself. Notre Dame has won five of the last six games between these teams, including last year’s matchup. In 2024, I expect these teams to be of a similar caliber, which should make for a great game.

At No. 15, we have another classic college football rivalry game, this time between Colorado and Nebraska. Although this matchup isn’t the Big 12 showdown it once was, these teams still have a great deal of animosity for each other, and both programs are on their way up. Nebraska is making strides with the addition of Dylan Raiola and other key players. Colorado has the Deion Sanders factor. Love him or hate him, Coach Prime makes for an entertaining atmosphere, so this game should be a fun one.

This will be USC and Wisconsin’s first matchup since 2015 when they met in the Holiday Bowl, in which Wisconsin won 23-21. The Badgers and the Trojans have similar outlooks for the season since both have seen significant roster turnover this offseason. For that reason, it’s hard to predict where these teams will be come fall, but this will hopefully be a quality matchup.

The Michigan Wolverines and the USC Trojans begin their Big Ten seasons against one another in the Big House. It will be interesting to see how Michigan starts next season. It is coming off a national championship, but it has lost its coach, quarterback and several other key players. USC still has gaps to fill, so I’d still take the Wolverines in this game, but it could be a closer game than you might think.

Penn State and Wisconsin are two programs that could fly under the radar in 2024. Both are expected to be near the top of the conference, but no one – including me — is projecting them to reach the level of Oregon, Ohio State or Michigan. When they meet in late October, both will have had time to develop their styles and find their identities, so I think this could be a tight game, and one with potential playoff implications.

Wisconsin isn’t Penn State’s only tough road matchup in the month of October. It also has to travel to Southern Cal on the 12th. As I’ve alluded to throughout this list, USC is another team, like the Badgers and the Nittany Lions, I see exceeding expectations this season. In 2023, their expectations were high and they fell short. In 2024, I think the script could flip. If it does, this will be an evenly matched game between two high-level programs, making for a great matchup.

The Oregon Ducks have Boise State on their schedule in 2024 for the first time since 2017, when the Broncos defeated the Ducks, 38-28. That game was the third between the schools and also the third win for Boise State. The Ducks will be favored in this game, but with some of the additions it made in the portal, Boise State could be formidable challenge for the Ducks.

Another exciting nonconference matchup this season will be Alabama’s trip to Madison, Wisconsin. Both programs have many unknowns heading into the season, but both should be quality teams and this should be a fun September matchup. Duck fans also get the added wrinkle of watching former Washington Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer coach the Crimson Tide in a meaningful game for the first time.

For the first time since the 2019 Rose Bowl, when Justin Herbert and the Ducks beat the Badgers 28-27, Oregon and Wisconsin will face off. Oregon will be the favorite in this game, but Wisconsin is a capable team, and the game will be played in the cold November air. The timing of this game is key, too. It will be the Ducks’ last road game of the season. Hopefully, Oregon will be in a position where if it wins its remaining games it will punch a ticket to the Big Ten Championship game.

It feels odd putting the 2023 national championship rematch at No. 7 on this list, but both teams are taking a step back in 2024. Both teams will have new coaches in the fall, and it will be interesting to see how their styles of play differ from their prolific predecessors, Jim Harbaugh and Kalen DeBoer. This one is hard to predict, but it has the potential to be a closely fought battle.

Seventeen years after Dennis Dixon and the 2007 Ducks dismantled the Michigan Wolverines in the Big House, the Ducks are headed back to Ann Arbor, this time as members of the Big Ten. As I’ve already said, Michigan will not be the same team it was last year, and the expectations of Oregon are high. Simply put, Oregon should win this game, but the Big House can be a tough place to play, even though it wasn’t in 2007.

The highest-ranked nonconference game on this list is Texas-Michigan, which will take place in Week 1 of the 2024 season. These were two College Football Playoff teams a year ago. While Michigan will not be as good, it will still be a formidable challenge for Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns, especially since Texas is on the road.

At No. 4, I have Ohio State versus Penn State. Both schools had good seasons in 2023, and they’re primed to be better this fall. Last October, the Buckeyes beat the Nittany Lions, 20-12, in a defensive battle. After the that game, Penn State head coach James Franklin caught criticism due to his poor track record in games against top-10 opponents, so this matchup against Ohio State could be a defining moment for him and his program.

Washington certainly will not have the best team this fall, but this is one of the games that I, and I’m sure most Ducks fans, have circled on the calendar. By the start of the season, it will have been more than 1,000 days since the Ducks last beat the Huskies. This year, Oregon and Washington are meeting each other during rivalry week for the last game of the season. Based on their roster discrepancies, Oregon should thoroughly handle Washington, but that doesn’t mean it will not be terrific to watch.

The Cascade Clash will not be the only big game taking place during rivalry week. We’ll, of course, have “The Game.” Ohio State and Michigan’s annual matchup is always one of the peak moments of the college football season, and this year should be no different. The Wolverines are on a three-game win streak against the Buckeyes. However, with Jim Harbaugh having moved on to the NFL, this might be the year Ryan Day gets the Buckeyes over the hump. I’m picking Ohio State in this game, especially since it’s at the Horseshoe, but as usual, it should be a great game.

When the Big Ten schedule was released last fall, this game stood out. Now, it feels like it could be the game of the year. In most of the preseason, way-too-early, never-gonna-happen rankings, Oregon and Ohio State are ranked somewhere in the top five — sometimes top three — of all Football Bowl Subdivision teams. This game will be a duel between two of the sport’s best young coaches, who are both bringing elite teams to the field. If it lives up to the hype this game will be an instant classic, and it could be the true birth of a budding rivalry in the Big Ten.