Big Ten sets 2026-27 women’s schedule model for UCLA and USC, including two meetings in the crosstown rivalry

The Big Ten Conference has released its 2026-27 women’s basketball home-and-away conference schedule, confirming when UCLA and USC will play each other twice during the regular season as the centerpiece of the Los Angeles crosstown rivalry. The league’s plan keeps the conference slate to 18 games per team, built around one repeat opponent and single games against the rest of the league.

Under the format announced by the conference, each Big Ten school will face 16 opponents once and one opponent twice. That repeated matchup is designed, in part, around travel and the geography of the conference’s current footprint, and it gives fans a reliable, year-to-year “event game” inside the regular season.

For UCLA, the home-and-away designations include eight conference games at Pauley Pavilion and eight on the road, with the league’s detailed list also specifying that the rivalry with USC will be played twice. UCLA’s designated home opponents are Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Minnesota and Nebraska, while its road opponents are Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, Wisconsin, Maryland, Rutgers, Washington and Oregon. The league said dates and television information will be announced later.

USC’s schedule is structured the same way within the Big Ten’s framework, with the conference confirming that it and UCLA will play twice during the regular season. That matters for USC, which is entering the 2026-27 season with added roster continuity at the top of the program, including the return of star guard Jazzy Davidson, according to reporting that accompanied the schedule announcement.

The league’s release also means conference road trips for UCLA and USC will be shaped by the same opponent set for each program, but split between hosting duties and travel based on the single-play matchups. In practical terms, it tightens the margin for teams that rely on home-court advantages in November and January, because the balance of opponents is now set well in advance even before tip times are posted.

With the NCAA tournament picture typically defined by conference results, the two-games guarantee between UCLA and USC carries extra weight for both programs. Big Ten standings can turn on a small number of swing games, and a rivalry series that occurs in the same regular season, rather than once, increases the chance that one team’s season-long momentum will be directly tested against the other.

The next items to watch are when the Big Ten publishes the exact game dates, start times, and media designations for the 2026-27 league slate. That information will determine which matchups bookend a team’s schedule and which weeks carry the most travel load, particularly for UCLA and USC given their dual role as both west-coast destinations and frequent cross-country travel points within the conference.