The results of the 2024 Big Ten football season are best judged while considering the context of each team's schedule, both in conference and overall.
For example, Indiana entered the year with our No. 17-ranked overall schedule. It then went 11-1 in the regular season and made the College Football Playoff. While the team itself took a gigantic step forward in year one under coach Curt Cignetti, it also benefitted from an easy path, at least by Big Ten standards.
A similar lens can be applied to USC's season. The Trojans entered with our toughest schedule, with games against LSU, Notre Dame, Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State, Washington and Nebraska. They went 6-6 against that challenging slate, plus 4-5 in Big Ten play. It's reasonable to say the team was much better than its record showed.
So, entering 2025, which teams fit those criteria, whether with an especially easy or challenging schedule?
Using the same method as last offseason, we've broken down every schedule in the Big Ten Conference, then ranked them by difficulty.
The equation used to compare each slate is simple. First, we take each team’s SP+ rating to find a numerical value for every game. The higher that number, the tougher the matchup. We then add every opponent’s SP+ rating together to find a Total Opponent Score. That large number is divided by the 12 total games to find the Average Opponent Score — a number that can then be compared to the SP+ leaderboard to find, on average, what a team will face each week.
(Note: Home and away is not factored into the model. Also, Football Championship Subdivision opponents are not listed in SP+. Every FCS opponent was assessed a "minus-15” rating, akin to the No. 118-ranked team in the Football Bowl Subdivision)
With that, here is an in-depth look at the Big Ten's strength of schedule ranking entering the 2025 season:
18. Illinois Fighting Illini
Total Opponent Score: 9.9
Average Opponent Score: 0.82 (akin to the 61st-best team in the ...
