After waiting until June for the last couple of years to announce conference volleyball schedules, the Big Ten dropped a February surprise on Thursday afternoon by unveiling every team’s opponents for the 2024 season.
The expanded 18-team B1G will continue to play each conference member once each season during the 20-week campaign, but with four new West Coast teams joining the league this summer, a new format was needed. Programs will now play three teams in a home-and-home with seven home single-plays and seven road single-plays.
The Big Ten said in a release that the double plays were based on competitive balance, geography and rivalries.
The highlight of the home-and-home series is that defending Big Ten-champion Nebraska will continue to double up against Wisconsin, which won the league title from 2019–22. The rivalry has provided some of the biggest television audiences the college sport’s history.
The four old Pac-12 members will all play each other twice and each returning Big Ten team will make one trip west to play either Washington and Oregon or UCLA and USC.
The West Coast travel partners will play the same league schedule. UCLA and USC will make the long trip across the country to play Maryland and Rutgers, while the latter two schools travel to play Washington and Oregon. The Pacific Northwest schools will play at the Michigan schools, Ohio State, and Penn State.
The new schedule will also include some reunions.
Minnesota coach Keegan Cook will return to the Pacific Northwest, where he was the head coach at Washington from 2015-22. New USC outside hitter Ally Batenhorst will also have a homecoming when she faces off against her former Nebraska teammates in Lincoln.
Taylor Landfair will welcome her former Minnesota teammates to the Devaney Center after transferring to Nebraska, which travels to visit former Huskers Maggie Mendelson and Caroline Jurevicious at Penn State.
Only a few double-play matchups don’t fit into tidy geographic proximity and rivalries, including Minnesota vs. Ohio State, Maryland vs. Michigan State, Purdue vs. Rutgers, and Iowa vs. Rutgers.
Dates, times and television coverage will be announced at a later date.
Illinois
Home: Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio State, Rutgers, UCLA, USC, Wisconsin
Away: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Oregon, Penn State,…
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