This isn’t all about football, you know? After an appearance in the 2023-2024 National Championship Game and another Big Ten regular season title, the Boilermakers now know their conference slate for their first season in an 18-team Big Ten. I won’t waste your time, I’ll get right into it. Home games are in bold.

• Thursday, December 5: at Penn State
• Sunday, December 8: against Maryland
• Thursday, January 2: in Minnesota
• Sunday, January 5: against Northwestern
• Thursday, January 9: at Rutgers
• Sunday, January 12: against Nebraska
• Wednesday, January 15: in Washington
• Saturday, January 18: in Oregon
• Tuesday, January 21: vs. Ohio State
• Friday, January 24: vs. Michigan
• Friday, January 31: vs. Indiana
• Tuesday, February 4: in Iowa
• Friday, February 7: vs. USC
• Tuesday, February 11: in Michigan
• Saturday, February 15: against Wisconsin
• Tuesday, February 18: at Michigan State
• Sunday, February 23: in Indiana
• Friday, February 28: vs. UCLA
• Tuesday, March 4: vs. Rutgers
• Friday, March 7: in Illinois
• March 12-16: Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament – ​​Indianapolis, Indiana.

The 20 conference games will of course include 10 away and 10 home games, but not the teams you may know. Instead, Purdue will have conference games at Washington and Oregon for the first time. Those games will be on Wednesday and Saturday of the same week, meaning the team will presumably stay out West between games. They talked about doing this when those schools were added to the conference, and it seems like they’ve followed through with it.

With the conference expanding to 18 teams, it’s much easier to see who plays twice. And Purdue plays IU, Rutgers and Michigan twice, while everyone else only plays once each. Purdue’s only game against what will likely be a very strong Illinois team is an away game to close out the regular season. Purdue only plays Northwestern at home, which may sound odd, but Northwestern has been outplaying Purdue lately. Purdue also has to play Michigan State on the road.

Overall, I think this is a very favorable schedule for the Boilermakers, and if the sophomores step up and the freshmen step in like we all think they could, I think Purdue has a real shot at another Big Ten title. What do you think of this schedule?