The Sporting News ranked Big Ten football schedules for this upcoming college football season from hardest to easiest, all the way from Wisconsin (hardest) to Illinois (easiest).

This list casts great news for College Football Playoff hopeful teams such as the Fighting Illini, Oregon and Michigan, but casts a daunting shadow on struggling programs such as Wisconsin, Rutgers and Purdue.

Last year, Oregon had the 12th hardest schedule according to The Sporting News and finished the regular season with an unblemished 9-0 conference record. The Ducks then went on to win the Big Ten Championship Game in their first year in the conference.

Toughest Opponents: at Alabama, vs Illinois, vs Michigan, vs Ohio State, at Oregon

Bad news for a Wisconsin program which has failed to reach the eight-win mark in three consecutive seasons for the first time since 1990-92. Anything less than eight wins seems like it would put head coach Luke Fickell on the hot seat. With the hardest schedule in the Big Ten according to The Sporting News, it really could be another rough campaign for the jumpin’ Badgers.

Toughest Opponents: at Illinois, at Ohio State, vs Oregon, vs Penn State

Coming off back-to-back seven win campaigns, Rutgers will face three teams that made the College Football Playoff last season. A win over any of these four teams this season would likely give the Scarlet Knights and head coach Greg Schiano their first top-25 victory since 2009 (USF).

Toughest Opponents: at Illinois, vs Michigan, at Notre Dame, at Oregon

USC‘s 2025 conference schedule is a bit of a gauntlet, as it will travel (to what will likely be top-15 teams) Illinois, Notre Dame and Oregon this season. Paul Finebaum tabbed Lincoln Riley as the head coach with the most pressure this season and anything less than being in the College Football Playoff conversation could be disastrous for the QB guru.

Toughest Opponents: at Illinois, at Michigan, vs Penn State, vs Texas

The reigning National Champions have the fourth most challenging schedule this season according to The Sporting News. The Buckeyes kick off the 2025 season on August 30 at home against Texas in a monster non-conference matchup and will face off against Illinois, Michigan and Penn State in conference play. Ohio State will look to break its four-season losing streak to the Wolverines this year, but a win in Ann Arbor is no easy task (unless you’re Appalachian State).

Toughest Opponents: vs Illinois, vs Michigan, at Notre Dame, at Ohio State

In what is set to be another disastrous season for a lowly Purdue program (ranked dead last among all power-four programs in Phil Steele’s 2025 College Football preview), the Boilermakers travel to both Notre Dame and Ohio State along with hosting Illinois and Michigan in West Lafayette. Purdue hasn’t gone winless in conference play in back-to-back seasons since 1919-20.

Toughest Opponents: vs Illinois, at Michigan, vs Ohio State, at Oregon

Washington seems to a program still looking to find itself in the second year of the Jedd Fisch era. The Huskies will travel to both Michigan and Oregon, but will host Illinois and Ohio State at Husky Stadium. It’ll look to get back to its program peak in 2023, when it went five-for-five in conference games against top-25 opponents.

Toughest Opponents: at Illinois, vs Michigan, vs Oregon, at Penn State

Northwestern has the seventh toughest schedule in the Big Ten this season according to The Sporting News. The Wildcats will host Illinois and Penn State at newly built Martin Stadium, looking to surprise the college football world once again like they did in 2023 when they went 8-4.

Toughest Opponents: vs Illinois, at Oregon, at Penn State

A season removed from making the College Football Playoff after not winning one singular regular season top-25 matchup, Indiana travels to both Oregon and Penn State and will host Illinois in Bloomington. Year two of the Curt Cignetti era is set up to show the college football world that the Hoosiers are here to stay, or it could show that they were a one-year wonder.

Toughest Opponents: at Ohio State, at Oregon

Freshly extended P.J. Fleck will lead his Minnesota Gophers into the conference’s ninth hardest schedule, headlined by road games at both Ohio State and Oregon. During Fleck’s tenure at Minnesota, he is 0-3 against Ohio State and has yet to face the Ducks.

Toughest Opponents: at Ohio State, vs Penn State

In what could be a make or break year for head coach DeShaun Foster and newly acquired quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the Bruins will travel to Ohio State and host a home game against Penn State this season. The road game against the Buckeyes will serve as a chance at redemption for Nico, who passed for just 104 yards in Tennessee‘s 42-17 loss to Ohio State in the 2024 College Football Playoff.

Teams 11-18

11. Penn State Nittany Lions
12. Iowa Hawkeyes
13. Nebraska Cornhuskers
T-14. Michigan Wolverines
T-14. Maryland Terrapins
T-14. Oregon Ducks
17. Michigan State Spartans
18. Illinois Fighting Illini

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormak has been in the job since July of 2022. Since then, the Big 12 has been represented in every College Football Playoff. In Yormaks inagural year, it was TCU who shocked the world and made it to the National Championship before crashing out to Georgia in what was a dominant 65-7 Bulldog win.

The year after, Texas was heartbroken thanks to a 37-31 loss to eventual runner-ups Washington in the semifinal stage.

But, last year things were a little different. the 2024/25 season saw the expansion to the 12-team playoff bracket and big-hitters Texas and Oklahoma jumped ship to the SEC, as the Big 12 welcomed four new teams. The likes of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah were each introduced.

Just one team from the Big 12 made the CFP, being Arizona State.

It would be harsh to say last season was a disappointment from the Big 12 standpoint. After all, having to deal with the massive blows of losing Texas and Oklahoma was patched with the Sun Devils compiling a six-game win streak that pushed Kenny Dillingham’s team to the playoff.

Yet Yormak expects for this season to be different.

According to Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS Sports, Yormak was quoted at the Big 12 Media Days saying, “No league offers the competitive balance that we do. … I fully expect the Big 12 to earn multiple College Football Playoff bids this year and to show once again that we can compete.”

When looking at the current layout of the Big 12, this is an ambitious claim. According to college football analyst Phil Steele, 11 teams were ranked inside the top 50, including the Jayhawks.

Those teams include Arizona State (15), Baylor (18), Utah, Texas Tech (25), TCU (26), Iowa State (28), Kansas State (30), Brigham Young University (42), Cincinnati (42), and Houston (46), before Kansas reached the 49th spot.

As of today, star BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff withdrew from the program after likely being faced with a seven-game suspension, after breaking the BYU honor code, taking away a possible dark horse for some college football playoff drama. Combine that with the massive overhaul of Texas Tech, which has seen the Red Raiders reel in 21 of the nation’s elite transfers and the world has yet to see thme fully mesh.

Dillingham’s Arizona State is, of course, going to top the Big 12 schools after their remarkable 11-3 season last Fall.

For the Jayhawks, opinions are mixed, quarterback Jalon Daniels appears to still have a little bit of a question mark over his head from fans regarding his ability when fully fit after spells of injury holding him back. That, along with the recent promotions of assistants to full-time coordinator positions, has its ups and downs. But, a strong transfer class ranked 7th in the Big 12 according to 247Sports does pose hope.

More Kansas Football News

Too much time has passed since the Wolverines and Fighting Irish have butted heads in one of the sport’s most iconic rivalries. The next scheduled meeting is not until 2033 in Ann Arbor and a year later in South Bend. In my opinion these two titans should be playing every year, excluding the college football playoff.

If and when they matchup it will be the first time that two African American coaches lead the way for both programs. Marcus Freeman and Sherrone Moore are riding high off of last season’s proverbial humps that they both mutually overcame. However in eight years from now one or both might be gone, with how things are humming inside their respective buildings.

2028 is the soonest that both have an opening on their schedules. Credit to Notre Dame which is not shying away from playing teams like Texas, Alabama and Florida during that stretch. So its argument of not wanting to play Michigan in the same time frame is somewhat valid.

If Notre Dame ever decided to join a conference the Big Ten makes more sense than the ACC and are a much better fit then the four Pac-12 members who debuted in 2024. Unfortunately since the Irish stayed independent this long, then they’ll never join a conference, unless the money is too rich to turn down.

A prime-time game between the two would do astronomical numbers wherever they play, like in 2011. The most likely scenario, though, is that they’ll square off in the playoffs before 2033. You would think that with the money alone, both universities would find a way to reach an agreement that satisfies all parties involved.

A Michigan/Notre Dame regular season clash makes college football better. The only thing that would top it would be a national championship encounter.