MSU Women’s Basketball: 2021-2022 Big Ten Opponents Announced

The Michigan State Spartans women’s basketball team faces a loaded Big Ten conference next season after seven teams made the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The Spartans also now know the 2021-2022 pairings for the 18-game conference schedule as those were announced by the Big Ten office earlier this morning.

The Spartans will play the following teams next season in Big Ten action:

• Home Only – Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, Purdue
• Away Only – Indiana, Iowa, Rutgers, Wisconsin
• Home & Away – Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State

The Spartans will get to face the Illini, Terps, Huskers, and Boilermakers just once, and in East Lansing at that. Road trips to Indiana, Iowa, Rutgers, and Wisconsin will be the sole matchups against those four schools. Then the Wolverines, Golden Gophers, Wildcats, Buckeyes, and Nittany Lions will all be both home and away.

The full schedule and when each game will be played, along with pairings and dates for the Big Ten-ACC Challenge and other non-conference opponents will come later this summer, likely in August for the league schedule, and perhaps in the fall for the rest.

Michigan State finished in seventh place last season in the Big Ten, earning a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament where the team fell to No. 7 Iowa State in a hard fought first round matchup. Michigan, Maryland, and Iowa all advanced to the Sweet 16, while Indiana made its first ever Elite Eight appearance.

The Big Ten finished the season with the top two offenses in the country (Maryland and Iowa), while seven teams finished in the top-35 in scoring. The league had eight teams ranked or receiving votes last season and nearly 70 percent of last year’s All-Big Ten honorees are expected to return next season, including nine of the coaches’ 10 first-team selections.

The 29th Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held March 2-March 6 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The 2022 Final Four will also be occurring in Big Ten country, hosted by Minnesota on April 1 and April 3 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.