Big Ten schedule released: Gophers start at home on November 1st and 2nd – The Rink Live

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — Coach Bob Motzko and select members of the Minnesota Gophers hockey team participated in a normal tradition of life in the hockey state on Wednesday by spending a few hours at the Minnesota State Fair to take part in a brief media tour and probably try a few different foods on a stick.

While they may have been strolling around Machinery Hill or somewhere near the historic grandstand, we witnessed another regularly scheduled rite of passage for State Fair week in the form of the release of the Big Ten’s conference schedule for the 2024-25 season – made public for the second year in a row on August 28.

For the Gophers, conference play begins similarly to last season when Penn State comes to 3M Arena at Mariucci for two games on Nov. 1 and 2. The Nittany Lions ended their season last spring in Minneapolis, where they lost to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten tournament in two hotly contested playoff games.

With the recently released early odds for the 2025 NCAA title in Las Vegas having the Gophers ranked second nationally behind Boston College, many are projecting Minnesota to be the team to beat in the seven-team Big Ten. Motzko’s teams won the conference tournament and regular-season titles, respectively, in 2021, 2022 and 2023 before falling to third place last season when Michigan State won the regular-season and tournament titles for the first time.

After their opening series at home to start November, the Gophers will embark on their only conference bus trip, facing Wisconsin at the Kohl Center on Nov. 8 and 9. Their first meetings with Michigan — which knocked Minnesota out of the conference tournament the last three years in a row — will be in Minneapolis on Dec. 8 and 9. Michigan State visits the following weekend, Dec. 13 and 14, to complete the 2024 portion of the season.

Perhaps the most critical eight-game series of the season begins in mid-January, when Notre Dame and outgoing coach Jeff Jackson make his final regular-season trip to 3M Arena at Mariucci. The Gophers then play two games at Michigan State (January 24-25), two at home against Wisconsin (January 31-Feb. 1) and, after an off weekend, two at Michigan (Feb. 14-15).

They will end the regular season with their longest conference road trip, traveling to Penn State for two games from February 28 to March 1. Exact game times and broadcast information will be announced at a later date.

The conference opener’s home games against Penn State come a month in October, when the Gophers are getting used to hotel rooms and their dark sweaters. Of the seven games (one exhibition and six regular-season games) they play in October, only one (an Oct. 25 meeting with St. Thomas) is at home.

“We’re on track to start the year, so we’re going to get tested,” Motzko said in a recent interview with The Rink Live. “All I can tell you is that we love our group and we have a chance to be really good if everything goes well health-wise. Gophers hockey is in a great spot.”

The Gophers finished the 2023–24 season 23-11-5 overall and 13-7-4 in conference play, ending the season with a loss to Boston University in the regional title game in Sioux Falls.

While most other college hockey conferences released their full schedules in late April, May or early June, the Big Ten generally needs more time because hockey teams must coordinate with men’s and women’s basketball and their television schedules, especially at schools like Wisconsin and Ohio State, where hockey and basketball share a building. Hockey East, which also has shared facilities used by both hockey and basketball, is the only other conference that has not yet released its full 2024-25 schedule.

The full Big Ten schedule can be found here.

With the release of the Big Ten schedule, U of M officials have stated that they expect individual game tickets to go on sale in the coming days through the university’s official website.

Jess Myers covers college hockey, outdoor and general sports topics, and travel for The Rink Live and the Forum Communications family of publications. He joined FCC in 2018 after three decades of covering sports as a freelance contributor for various publications while working full-time in politics and media relations. A native of Warroad, Minnesota (the real Hockeytown USA), Myers holds a degree in journalism/communications from the University of Minnesota Duluth. He lives in the Twin Cities. Contact Jess by email at [email protected] or find him on Twitter at @JessRMyers. English speaking.