The 2024 college football season is just over one month away, and conference realignment, an extremely busy transfer portal and coaching carousel, and expanded playoffs gives a brand new look to the sport.
The Big Ten has a quartet of new programs joining the conference in 2024 after adding USC, UCLA, Oregon, and last year’s runner up Washington from the Pac-12.
Those new teams create fun and exciting conference matchups as the year gets underway, but they also add some fun nonconference matchups into the mix as well.
The pinnacle of the nonconference slate is a matchup between Texas and Michigan in Ann Arbor, but that is one of a handful of excellent matchups for Big Ten fans to tune into in early September.
A few key rivalries are on the schedule for Penn State and West Virginia, Washington and Washington State, and Oregon and Oregon State – and while none of those three made the cut for our top five noncon games in the conference, that just goes to show how excellent the first few weeks in September should be for college football fans.
Below is a look at the five top nonconference games in the Big Ten this upcoming season:
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When: Week 2 (Big Noon Kickoff)
Location: The Big House (Ann Arbor, MI)
Does it get any bigger than this? Big Noon Kickoff, at the Big House, between two teams who were in the College Football Playoffs last year. This is not only the biggest nonconference game in the Big Ten this season, it’s arguably the biggest game of the entire college football season.
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When: Week 3
Location: Camp Randall Stadium (Madison, WI)
The first huge test for new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer comes in Madison against the Badgers. Can DeBoer and the Crimson Tide prove to the college football world they are still alive and well in the post-Nick Saban era? Or will a loss here (and let’s not overlook USF in Week 2) potentially cause some early panic in Tuscaloosa?
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When: Week 1
Location: Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas, NV)
LSU takes on both USC and UCLA in the noncon this season, but the Week 1 matchup against the Trojans features the programs with the previous two Heisman Trophy winners, and as a season opener in a neutral site in Vegas there is plenty of intrigue for this one.
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When: Week 2
Location: Autzen Stadium (Eugene, OR)
Boise State is arguably the best non Power Conference program in America, and they’ll represent a great early test for Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks before they get fully into their first season of Big Ten play. A 10:00 PM ET kickoff between two elite west coast teams, feels a bit like Pac-12 After Dark isn’t dead just yet.
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When: Week 2
Location: Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, NE)
The renewing of an old rivalry, the Cornhuskers will host Deion Sanders and Colorado in another exciting Week 2 game for the Big Ten. Can Nebraska take down the Buffs, who have been the talk of college football for the past year despite little on-field success? Or will Sanders and his squad put their money where their mouth is and pick up a big time nonconference win?
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Courtesy : https://collegesportswire.usatoday.com/lists/big-ten-football-nonconference-matchups-college/