Beginning next season, three major conferences will require their members to face at least 10 power conference opponents — but the Big Ten isn’t joining them, according to a multiple reports on Wednesday.
The Big 12 will continue its policy of nine league football games plus one nonconference opponent from a power league, a standard it has used the past two years. The Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference to adopt similar minimums in 2026, consisting of nine conference matchups and one power opponent outside the league. Because the ACC has 17 teams, one school will play eight league games each season, but every member will still meet the 10-game power threshold.
The Big Ten will continue to play nine conference games, as it has since 2016, but will not add a requirement for a non-conference power foe.
That decision also lowers expectations for any change to the College Football Playoff for 2026. With no alignment on scheduling across leagues, the commissioners meeting this week in Chicago are expected to stay with the 12-team format used in 2024 and 2025.
The Big Ten’s stance comes months after coaches and officials highlighted their in-league grind at media days.
“Everybody has to play the same number of conference games,” Penn State’s James Franklin said in July in reference to SEC teams then only playing eight league games. “Everybody should be playing eight or everybody should be playing nine.”
Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti pushed for broader consistency: “We need to standardize the schedule across the board if we want to have objective criteria for who should be in the playoffs and who shouldn’t.”
In practice, several Big Ten programs are bypassing nonconference power opponents. This season, Penn State, Indiana, Washington, Rutgers, Northwestern and Maryland have none scheduled. Current versions of next season’s schedules show Indiana, Nebraska, Penn State and Washington in the same position.
–Field Level Media
