Does the new look Big 10 with the addition of Oregon, UCLA, Washington and USC favor or hurt the 2024 Terps football season.

The 2024 Big 10 football season will be the start of a new era as this will be the first year that the newly expanded Big 10 conference will being its new format with 18 teams and no divisions and a new Flex Protect XVII model.

The Big 10 conference welcomed 4 former schools from what use to be the Pac-12, with those teams being Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington. None of the new additions should be over looked and taken for granted, as all 4 teams have strong football programs and rich football traditions.

What does this mean for the Maryland football program?.

Most Terp’s fans were glad to see the addition of 4 new teams and were praying that this would benefit the Terps, as year and year out since Maryland was in the East Division they would always play 3 national powers in Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan and that made it tough sledding for a program that trying to get back to national prominance. There were several occasions where the Terps would be so close to beating one of the national powers, but to no avail. Thus, realistically giving Maryland no chance of winning a conference title, much less a bowl game apperance.

So, this past April the Big 10 conference announced the first football schedule with the new 18 team format and most Maryland fans were eagerly awaiting the schedule release in hopes of a favorable schedule.

Date Time At Opponent Location Tournament Result

Aug 31 (Sat) Noon Home UConn College Park, MD (SECU Stadium)

Sep 7 (Sat) 3:30 PM Home Michigan State College Park, MD (SECU Stadium)

Sep 14 (Sat) 8:00 PM Away Virginia Charlottesville, VA

Sep 21 (Sat) TBA Home Villanova College Park, MD (SECU Stadium)

Sep 28 (Sat) TBA Away Indiana Bloomington, IN

Oct 11 (Fri) 8:00 PM Home Northwestern College Park, MD (SECU Stadium)

Oct 19 (Sat) TBA Home USC College Park, MD (SECU Stadium)

Oct 26 (Sat) TBA Away Minnesota Minneapolis, MN

Nov 9 (Sat) TBA Away Oregon Eugene, Oregon

Nov 16 (Sat) TBA Home Rutgers College Park, MD (SECU Stadium)

Nov 23 (Sat) TBA Home Iowa College Park, MD (SECU Stadium)

Nov 30 (Sat) TBA Away Penn State University Park, PA

At first glance, you take notice that the final game of the year is at Penn State, but there is no Ohio State or Michigan on the schedule, which was a major relief and finally there was some hope. Now, taking a second glance, we see USC at home and Oregon on the road, with the rest of schedule looking managable and quite a few winnable games. So, they took out powerhouses Ohio State and Michigan out of the equation and added powerhouses USC and Oregon for the Terps to face this upcoming 2024 season.

On the surface, this looks like a total wash for this upcoming season, but the numbers don’t lie. According to the ESPN CFI the Terps have the 25th ranked hardest schedule in the Country in 2024, as there are 11 Big 10 teams in the Top 30 which include the 4 new west coast teams. Now, here is where it gets interesting. According to the same index for the 2023 season the Terps were ranked as having the 14th hardest schedule in the country and this was before the addition of the 4 west coast teams.

Although, the Terp’s have the 25th hardest schedule this upcoming year, the schedule does not look all that bad and does slightly favor Maryland and even with the Terp’s playing USC and Oregon, the season looks very promising and the Maryland football program will continue towards its climb towards becoming a program to be reckon with on the national stage. But, for true Terps fans, we are glad to see no more Buckeyes or Wolvernes and with no more divisions, the future of Maryland football looks bright.