Again, I used FBSchedules.com for previously scheduled non conference games. Unless games get moved around there will not be any Big Ten conference games scheduled the first three weeks of the season. Only Northwestern has an open date Week 1 (Sept. 5). Only USC has an open date Week 2 (Sept. 12). Only USC and Purdue have open dates Week 3 (Sept. 19) and they won't play in 2026.
USC has Fresno State scheduled for Sept. 5 and Notre Dame unscheduled. USC has said they would prefer to play them in September but Notre Dame's 2026 September schedule is completely booked, ironically including games with Michigan State (Sept. 19) and Purdue (Sept. 26). The earliest date USC and Notre Dame could play would be Oct. 10 and Notre Dame is scheduled to play road games on Sept. 26 and Oct. 3 so I'm guessing Notre Dame won't want to play Oct. 10. FBSChedules has the game listed as a neutral site game but I'm wondering if that was USC trying to get that game on Netflix and you figure that won't happen so why not just play in the Coliseum? Just so UCLA has someone to play Rivalry Week, I have Notre Dame-USC scheduled for Oct. 24 this year. Now this year UCLA plays at California. I'd be willing for 2026 to have Notre Dame-USC be the season finale if UCLA-California move to Rivalry Week. California-Stanford usually don't play on Rivalry Week in years Stanford doesn't play Notre Dame and with an odd number of ACC teams and four ACC teams playing an SEC in state opponent someone needs a bye or non conference opponent anyway.
Otherwise, USC will still need one non conference opponent, will have to schedule them Week 2 or Week 3, and have to take a September bye week. Meanwhile Purdue scheduled Notre Dame Week 4 and with no other suitable opponent Week 3 they will have to have their bye week that week. Northwestern scheduled Ball State in October and with everyone else playing non conference Northwestern will have to have their bye week Sept. 5 and play 12 consecutive weeks! Someone else needs a Week 4 bye week, Michigan drew the short straw. Somehow UCLA and Nebraska got Nov. 14 off (they don't play each other). All other teams got an October bye week.
Ohio State won't play Penn State but will play Indiana (away) and Oregon (home). I have those two games as well as Michigan-Ohio State FOX's top three. FOX also got Ohio State-Nebraska by default as two other Big Ten TV games were hosted by West Coast teams. I didn't draft all of the games/weeks. CBS's top games included Oklahoma/Michigan, Michigan/Oregon, and Notre Dame/USC (same week as Oregon/Ohio State). NBC got Ohio State/USC (first Big Ten meeting between the two) and Oregon/USC (same week as Ohio State/Indiana). I tried to schedule those two away from top SEC prime time games. For Penn State fans, USC-Penn State is the White Out so that's another NBC game.
One somewhat good week I feel is Nov. 7. I didn't assign any networks:
Illinois at Ohio State (OK, I'm biased this will be a good game but they did get 5 million this year)
Michigan State at Michigan
USC at Indiana
Nebraska at Oregon
One of these four won't be a "top three" game. If MSU continues to suck it'll likely be them. Then again, they can always move Nebraska-Oregon to Friday or the graveyard shift.
Also, this week is one of the SEC's best weeks...
Texas at Tennessee (First SEC meeting between the two)
Oklahoma at Georgia (Same)
Alabama at LSU (Last continuous meeting between the two, they won't play in 2027).
The fact that the SEC schedule is out should help the Big Ten. They should be able to strategically schedule their top games to avoid the SEC ones for a change.
I'm guessing FOX's "Big Three" will be Ohio State's Big Three (at Michigan, at Indiana, Oregon). I'm guessing Indiana or Oregon will be Halloween or the week before to lead into the World Series. I had one of these games on Nov. 14, after seeing the SEC's Nov. 14 games I'd probably avoid a big FOX game that day as ABC is almost certainly going to have a top noon game.
I had Oklahoma at Michigan on CBS and Ohio State at USC on NBC. It's very possible CBS (I believe they have priority) will prefer OSU-USC. If Oklahoma-Michigan is on NBC, ABC would have to move Ohio State-Texas to 3:30pm. It's one thing for Oregon-Penn State and Alabama-Georgia to go head to head but Ohio State-Texas and Oklahoma-Michigan would be bad for all parties involved.
The best week for NBC to have a big game would be Oct. 3. Vanderbilt at Georgia looks to be the best SEC game that week. It's also a great CBS week as the rest of their schedule is lousy. Look at the SEC thread to find good "doubleheaders". One week is Oct. 10 when they scheduled Oklahoma-Texas (Dallas) and Georgia-Alabama. CBS and NBC should absolutely forget any good games this week.
I scheduled preliminary Saturday games for FOX, CBS, and NBC.
Unlike my first Big Ten schedule, no team has three road games in three weeks although a couple of teams have three consecutive road games with a bye in the middle.
Indiana and Oregon won't play next year, there will be no regular season rematch of the Peach Bowl Playoff SF. The top conference games will remain both team's games vs. Ohio State.
Not a huge deal but I see you picked PSU-Minnesota and Indiana-Washington over Purdue-Notre Dame and didn't give Purdue a single broadcast game. I'd probably have that ND game picked before both of them.
(01-06-2026 01:15 AM)The Beaver Wrote: Not a huge deal but I see you picked PSU-Minnesota and Indiana-Washington over Purdue-Notre Dame and didn't give Purdue a single broadcast game. I'd probably have that ND game picked before both of them.
The quick answer is it's Purdue, what do you expect?
In 2024, Notre Dame at Purdue aired on CBS and got 2.28M viewers. Among games CBS had a rating for, this was CBS's 2nd lowest Saturday game. The only game lower? Penn State at ... Purdue!
This year, USC at Purdue aired on CBS and got 1.41M viewers and Indiana at Purdue got 2.68M viewers.
I can see Purdue-Indiana being a Black Friday game and being on NBC or CBS, it'll come down to if they're willing to play and IU willing to host. There's also nothing stopping Purdue from playing a Friday game, especially if they agree to host (although if other Big Ten teams step up FOX would choose them). But Purdue is going to have a hard time justifying Saturday broadcast games with the exception of Ohio State (3.48M in 2024 on FOX) and even then every team needs a BTN conference game (which happened in 2025).
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2026 Big Ten Schedule Proposed Dates
2026 Big Ten Schedule Proposed Dates 
