This isn’t all about football, you know? The Boilermakers just made it to the 2023-24 National Championship Game and another Big Ten regular-season title. They now know their conference slate for their first season in an 18-team Big Ten. I’m not going to waste your time, I’m going to dive right in. Home games are in bold.

• Thursday, December 5: at Penn State
• Sunday December 8: vs Maryland
• Thursday January 2: In Minnesota
• Sunday January 5: vs. Northwestern
• Thursday January 9: at Rutgers
• Sunday January 12: vs. 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: vs 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.

A 20-game conference schedule includes 10 road games and 10 home games, but not the teams you might recognize. Instead, Purdue will host conference games for the first time ever at Washington and Oregon. These games will take place on Wednesday and Saturday of the same week, meaning the team will likely remain in the West between games. They talked about doing this when they added these schools to the conference, and it appears they’ve followed through.

With the conference expanding to 18 teams, it’s a lot easier to see who’s playing twice. And for Purdue, they’ll play IU, Rutgers and Michigan twice, with everyone else playing single plays. Purdue’s only game against what will likely be a very strong Illinois team will be on the road to end the regular season. Purdue only plays at home against Northwestern, which may sound odd to mention, but Northwestern has Purdue’s number as of late. Purdue will also have to travel to Michigan State.

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