Nine teams from Piscataway to Iowa City, eight conference games each, a true single round robin, and a regular season that ends on the last Friday in October. Here is the full Big Ten field hockey schedule, nonconference included.
Table of Contents
- How Big Ten field hockey works in 2026
- Opening weekend, August 28 to 30
- Week 2, September 4 to 7
- Week 3, September 11 to 13
- Conference week 1, September 17 to 20
- Conference week 2, September 25 to 29
- Conference week 3, October 2 to 4
- Conference week 4, October 9 to 11
- Conference week 5, October 16 to 18
- Conference week 6, October 22 to 25
- Conference week 7, October 30
- The games the composite gets wrong
- Big Ten Tournament
- NCAA Tournament
- Games to circle in 2026
- Big Ten field hockey 2026 FAQ
- Dig deeper
Times are Eastern. Conference games are in bold. Blank cells in the TV column mean the game streams on B1G+, not that a network is pending. Where a game is played at a third school’s field, the site is noted in the match line.
How Big Ten field hockey works in 2026
Nine of the Big Ten’s eighteen schools sponsor field hockey: Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. That is the same number the ACC carries, and it produces the same tidy math. Everyone plays everyone once, eight conference games apiece, 36 in all, from September 17 to October 30. No pods, no unbalanced draw, no argument about who dodged whom.
The league also has no coast-to-coast problem. Where the ACC now flies teams to Palo Alto and Berkeley in October, the Big Ten’s field hockey footprint stops at Iowa City. Nobody in this conference plays a 9 p.m. Eastern road game. The longest conference trip anyone makes is Rutgers to Iowa on October 23.
Northwestern arrives as the team to beat, and not by a little. The Wildcats are the unanimous No. 1 in the Penn Monto/NFHCA preseason coaches poll, the two-time defending national champion, and the winner of last year’s Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. They went 20-1 in 2025. The only loss was to Princeton, whom they later beat for the national title.
Five of the nine Big Ten programs opened the season ranked in the national top 20: Northwestern first, Iowa tied for eleventh, Maryland thirteenth, Michigan fourteenth, Rutgers seventeenth. Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State start outside it.
The postseason catch: the Big Ten Tournament has been a seven-team bracket, which means two of the nine finish the round robin and go home. In 2025 that was Penn State and Michigan State.
One quirk worth knowing before you read the tables. Iowa plays Indiana twice in September and Ohio State twice in September, and in each pair only the Friday game counts in the standings. The Sunday rematch is a nonconference game. More on that below.
Opening weekend, August 28 to 30
Wake Forest hosts the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in Winston-Salem, which is why Michigan and Iowa opened against North Carolina and Wake Forest on somebody else’s field. Both won. Michigan beat the preseason No. 2 Tar Heels in overtime; Iowa did the same to No. 7 Wake Forest.
| Game | Date | Time / Result | TV |
| Drexel at Maryland | Aug 28 | Maryland 3-0 | |
| VCU at Northwestern | Aug 28 | Northwestern 2-0 | |
| Michigan State at Ohio | Aug 28 | Michigan State 3-1 | |
| North Carolina vs Michigan (Winston-Salem) | Aug 28 | Michigan 2-1 (OT) | |
| Old Dominion at Ohio State | Aug 28 | Old Dominion 3-2 | |
| Rutgers at Monmouth | Aug 28 | Monmouth 5-1 | |
| Virginia at Penn State | Aug 28 | Virginia 4-3 (OT) | |
| Iowa vs Wake Forest (Winston-Salem) | Aug 28 | Iowa 4-3 (OT) | |
| Indiana vs Miami (OH) (Louisville) | Aug 29 | Miami (OH) 2-1 | |
| Michigan State vs Saint Louis (Athens, OH) | Aug 29 | Michigan State 3-0 | |
| Iowa vs North Carolina (Winston-Salem) | Aug 30 | 12:00 | |
| Lock Haven at Penn State | Aug 30 | 12:00 | |
| Lafayette at Northwestern | Aug 30 | 12:00 | |
| Bellarmine at Ohio State | Aug 30 | 1:00 | |
| Rutgers at Wagner | Aug 30 | 1:00 | |
| Indiana at Louisville | Aug 30 | 2:00 | |
| Temple at Maryland | Aug 30 | 2:00 | |
| Michigan at Wake Forest (Winston-Salem) | Aug 30 | 2:00 |
The league went 6-4 across the first two days. Three of the four losses came against ranked opposition. The fourth was Rutgers, 5-1 at Monmouth.
Week 2, September 4 to 7
The ACC/Big Ten crossover splits into two pods. Boston College hosts one in Newton, with Duke, Northwestern and Maryland. Rutgers hosts the other in Piscataway, with Syracuse, Ohio State and Virginia.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Virginia at Rutgers (Piscataway) | Sep 4 | 12:00 | |
| Michigan State at Miami (OH) | Sep 4 | 1:00 | |
| New Hampshire at Indiana | Sep 4 | 3:00 | |
| Villanova at Penn State | Sep 4 | 3:00 | |
| Northwestern vs Duke (Newton) | Sep 4 | 3:00 | |
| Lehigh at Iowa | Sep 4 | 4:00 | |
| Ohio State vs Syracuse (Piscataway) | Sep 4 | 5:00 | |
| Kent State at Michigan | Sep 4 | 5:00 | |
| Maryland at Boston College | Sep 4 | 6:00 | |
| Ohio State vs Virginia (Piscataway) | Sep 6 | 11:00 AM | |
| Duke vs Maryland (Newton) | Sep 6 | 11:00 AM | |
| Louisville at Michigan State | Sep 6 | 12:00 | |
| Delaware at Penn State | Sep 6 | 12:00 | |
| Syracuse at Rutgers | Sep 6 | 2:00 | |
| Vermont at Michigan | Sep 6 | 2:00 | |
| Ball State at Iowa | Sep 6 | 2:00 | |
| Northwestern vs Boston College (Newton) | Sep 6 | 2:00 | |
| Central Michigan at Indiana | Sep 7 | 12:00 |
Four of the five ACC teams Big Ten schools see this weekend finished last season ranked. Northwestern draws Duke, the ACC’s preseason co-third pick, on a Friday afternoon in Massachusetts.
Week 3, September 11 to 13
Northwestern hosts a four-team weekend in Evanston without playing on Friday: Iowa, Miami (OH) and Louisville all use Lakeside Field before the Wildcats take the ball themselves.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Iowa vs Miami (OH) (Evanston) | Sep 11 | 12:00 | |
| Cornell vs Indiana (Columbus) | Sep 11 | 1:00 | |
| Michigan State at Kent State | Sep 11 | 2:00 | |
| Louisville at Northwestern | Sep 11 | 3:00 | |
| Delaware at Ohio State | Sep 11 | 4:00 | |
| California at Michigan | Sep 11 | 5:00 | |
| Rutgers at Princeton | Sep 11 | 5:00 | |
| Towson at Maryland | Sep 11 | 6:00 | |
| Indiana at Ball State | Sep 13 | 11:00 AM | |
| Cornell at Ohio State | Sep 13 | 12:00 | |
| UConn at Rutgers | Sep 13 | 12:00 | |
| Saint Joseph’s at Maryland | Sep 13 | 12:00 | |
| California at Michigan State | Sep 13 | 12:00 | |
| Princeton at Penn State | Sep 13 | 12:00 | |
| Iowa vs Louisville (Evanston) | Sep 13 | 12:00 | |
| Miami (OH) at Northwestern | Sep 13 | 3:00 |
Rutgers gets Princeton and UConn in the same week, which is the hardest nonconference back-to-back anybody in the league plays. Penn State hosts Princeton on Sunday.
Conference week 1, September 17 to 20
Conference play opens on a Thursday with Maryland at Penn State. The first Big Ten Network broadcast of the year comes the next night, and it is the one you would pick.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Maryland at Penn State | Sep 17 | 5:00 | |
| Northwestern at Stanford | Sep 17 | 9:00 | |
| Rutgers at UAlbany | Sep 18 | 1:00 | |
| Michigan at Michigan State | Sep 18 | 4:00 | BTN |
| Indiana at Iowa | Sep 18 | 6:00 | |
| Northwestern vs California (Davis) | Sep 19 | 5:00 | |
| Boston College at Ohio State | Sep 20 | 12:00 | |
| Michigan State at Ball State | Sep 20 | 12:00 | |
| Wake Forest at Maryland | Sep 20 | 12:00 | BTN |
| Rutgers at Colgate | Sep 20 | 12:00 | |
| Penn State at Monmouth | Sep 20 | 12:00 | |
| Michigan at Central Michigan | Sep 20 | 1:00 | |
| Indiana at Iowa | Sep 20 | 1:00 | |
| Northwestern at UC Davis | Sep 20 | 2:00 |
Northwestern spends the week in California while the rest of the league opens conference play. The champs play Stanford on Thursday night, California in Davis on Saturday, and UC Davis on Sunday, then come home and do not leave the Midwest again until the postseason.
Indiana at Iowa appears twice here, and that is not a typo. Indiana’s release calls Friday the conference game and Sunday a nonconference game.
Conference week 2, September 25 to 29
The only Saturday conference game of the entire season lands here.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Rutgers at Maryland | Sep 25 | 4:00 | BTN |
| Michigan State at Northwestern | Sep 25 | 4:00 | |
| Ohio State at Iowa | Sep 25 | 6:00 | |
| Michigan at Indiana | Sep 26 | 12:00 | |
| La Salle at Rutgers | Sep 27 | 12:00 | |
| Ohio State at Iowa | Sep 27 | 1:00 | |
| Penn State at Bucknell | Sep 28 | 6:00 | |
| Maryland at Princeton | Sep 29 | 4:00 |
Same story as the week before. Ohio State opens Big Ten play at Iowa on Friday, then the two play again on Sunday and it does not count. Ohio State’s own schedule release says so explicitly.
Conference week 3, October 2 to 4
The Michigan schools host four straight conference games between them, and Indiana plays a road double.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Penn State at Rutgers | Oct 2 | 3:00 | |
| Northwestern at Ohio State | Oct 2 | 3:00 | |
| Indiana at Michigan State | Oct 2 | 4:00 | BTN |
| Iowa at Michigan | Oct 2 | 6:00 | |
| Indiana at Ohio State | Oct 4 | 12:00 | |
| Delaware at Maryland | Oct 4 | 12:00 | |
| American at Rutgers | Oct 4 | 12:00 | |
| Northwestern at Michigan | Oct 4 | 12:00 | |
| Iowa at Michigan State | Oct 4 | 1:00 | |
| Lafayette at Penn State | Oct 4 | 1:00 |
Michigan hosts Iowa on Friday and Northwestern on Sunday. Michigan State hosts Indiana on Friday and Iowa on Sunday. Six conference games in three days, the busiest stretch of the season.
Conference week 4, October 9 to 11
Four conference games on Friday, none on Sunday. The league takes the whole back half of the weekend off from itself.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Rutgers at Ohio State | Oct 9 | 1:00 | |
| Penn State at Michigan State | Oct 9 | 3:00 | |
| Maryland at Michigan | Oct 9 | 4:00 | |
| Iowa at Northwestern | Oct 9 | 4:00 | BTN |
| Northwestern at Princeton | Oct 11 | TBA | |
| Longwood at Michigan State | Oct 11 | 11:00 AM | |
| Monmouth at Michigan | Oct 11 | 11:00 AM | |
| Ohio at Indiana | Oct 11 | 12:00 | |
| Penn State at Kent State | Oct 11 | 12:00 |
Northwestern at Princeton on Sunday is the 2025 national championship game replayed on a Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, with no time listed yet. It is the best nonconference game on any Big Ten schedule this fall and it does not have a network.
Conference week 5, October 16 to 18
Seven games, all seven in conference, nothing else on the calendar. The tidiest week the league has.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Michigan at Rutgers | Oct 16 | 3:00 | |
| Northwestern at Indiana | Oct 16 | 3:00 | |
| Michigan State at Maryland | Oct 16 | 4:00 | |
| Ohio State at Penn State | Oct 16 | 5:00 | BTN |
| Michigan State at Rutgers | Oct 18 | 12:00 | |
| Ohio State at Maryland | Oct 18 | 12:00 | |
| Michigan at Penn State | Oct 18 | 12:00 |
Rutgers, Maryland and Penn State each host twice, taking a Michigan school on Friday and swapping on Sunday. Michigan and Michigan State both play their entire weekend east of Ohio.
Conference week 6, October 22 to 25
The one Thursday night game with a national audience, and the last full weekend before the finish.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Maryland at Northwestern | Oct 22 | 8:00 | BTN |
| Michigan State at Ohio State | Oct 23 | 3:00 | |
| Penn State at Indiana | Oct 23 | 3:00 | |
| Rutgers at Iowa | Oct 23 | 4:00 | |
| Bellarmine at Michigan State | Oct 25 | 12:00 | |
| Maryland at Indiana | Oct 25 | 12:00 | |
| Rutgers at Northwestern | Oct 25 | 12:00 | |
| Kent State at Ohio State | Oct 25 | 1:00 | |
| Michigan at Miami (OH) | Oct 25 | 1:00 | |
| Penn State at Iowa | Oct 25 | 1:00 |
Rutgers plays at Iowa on Friday and at Northwestern on Sunday, the longest single road swing anybody makes all season. Maryland goes to Evanston on Thursday night and Bloomington on Sunday.
Conference week 7, October 30
Four games, one Friday, and the season is over.
| Game | Date | Time | TV |
| Indiana at Rutgers | Oct 30 | 12:00 | |
| Iowa at Maryland | Oct 30 | 2:00 | |
| Northwestern at Penn State | Oct 30 | 3:00 | |
| Ohio State at Michigan | Oct 30 | 5:00 |
No Sunday finale, no staggered close, no BTN window. The Big Ten stacks its last four conference games onto a single Friday afternoon and lets the standings sort themselves out by dinnertime. The last one to finish is Ohio State at Michigan.
The games the composite gets wrong
The Big Ten’s composite schedule is mostly clean, but a handful of entries will send you to the wrong field at the wrong hour. Write these down by hand.
Iowa plays Indiana twice and Ohio State twice, and only half of it counts. These are not duplicate listings. Indiana’s schedule release states that the Friday, September 18 game at Iowa is the conference game and the Sunday, September 20 rematch is nonconference. Ohio State’s release says the same about September 25 and 27. One complication: Iowa’s own release lists Indiana on September 20 as one of its home Big Ten games, which contradicts Indiana. The two schools disagree in print. Treat the conference designation on that pair as unsettled until the standings say otherwise.
Ohio State at Penn State, October 16. The composite lists 4:00. The Big Ten Network television release and Ohio State’s own schedule both say 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Take 5:00.
Maryland at Northwestern, October 22. The composite lists 9:00 p.m. Eastern. The BTN release says 8:00 p.m. Eastern, and Northwestern’s schedule has it at 7:00 p.m. Central, which is the same thing. Take 8:00.
Michigan State at Rutgers, October 18. The composite says 12:00 AM. It is noon.
Rutgers at Northwestern, October 25. The composite says 12:00 Eastern. Northwestern’s site says 12:00 p.m. Central, which would be 1:00 Eastern. Unresolved.
Louisville at Michigan State, September 6. Listed twice, once at noon and once as postponed. No makeup date has appeared.
Big Ten Tournament dates. The league’s championship-hosts release says November 4 to 8. Ohio State’s and Indiana’s schedules say November 5 to 8. Michigan and Northwestern say November 4 to 8. Check before you book anything.
Big Ten Tournament
Ohio State hosts, at Buckeye Varsity Field in Columbus, with the league listing the window as November 4 to 8.
The Big Ten Network has the semifinals as a Friday, November 6 doubleheader at 1 and 4 p.m. Eastern, and the championship on Sunday, November 8 at noon. That puts quarterfinals on Thursday, November 5, which matches the Thursday-Friday-Sunday rhythm the league used in 2025.
The 2025 field was seven teams out of nine, seeded off the round robin, with the No. 1 seed getting a bye into the semifinals and the bottom two finishers left out entirely. Penn State and Michigan State were the two who stayed home. The league has not published the 2026 bracket size, so confirm before assuming your team is in.
The winner takes the automatic NCAA bid. Northwestern has won three straight Big Ten regular season titles and enters as the defending tournament champion.
NCAA Tournament
First and second rounds are November 13 and 15 at the campus sites of the top four national seeds. The final four and the national championship go to Louisville’s Trager Stadium on November 20 and 22.
Northwestern is the two-time defending national champion, and won last year’s title after entering the tournament unseeded. The final Penn Monto/NFHCA coaches polls come out November 10, three days before the bracket starts.
Games to circle in 2026
Michigan at Michigan State, September 18. The first BTN broadcast of the season, No. 14 on the road in East Lansing, and a rivalry that travels well across sports.
Indiana at Iowa, September 18 and 20. Two games in three days between the same teams, and only one of them changes the standings. Nothing else on the national calendar looks like this.
Michigan at Indiana, September 26. The only Saturday conference game of the year, on a weekend when nobody else in the league is playing a Big Ten opponent.
Iowa at Northwestern, October 9. No. 11 at No. 1, on BTN, at 4 p.m. on a Friday. Iowa was the No. 3 seed in last year’s Big Ten tournament and is the most credible threat to Northwestern in the round robin.
Northwestern at Princeton, October 11. Not a conference game and not on television, but it is a rematch of the national championship game, against the only team that beat Northwestern all of last season.
Ohio State at Penn State, October 16. Two of the four unranked Big Ten teams, on BTN, both needing the win to stay in the tournament field. The bracket math starts here.
Maryland at Northwestern, October 22. No. 13 at No. 1 under the lights at Lakeside Field on a Thursday night, in the league’s only prime-time window.
Northwestern at Penn State, October 30. The champions finish the regular season in State College, likely with the No. 1 seed already locked and Penn State playing for its postseason life.
Ohio State at Michigan, October 30. The Game, field hockey edition, and the last conference game of the Big Ten season. Seeding will be on the line for both.
Big Ten field hockey 2026 FAQ
When does Big Ten conference play start? September 17, with Maryland at Penn State. The regular season ends October 30.
How many conference games does each team play? Eight. Nine teams, 36 conference games, a full single round robin. Everybody plays everybody once.
Which Big Ten schools play field hockey? Nine of the eighteen: Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers.
Who is the favorite? Northwestern, and it is not close. The Wildcats are the unanimous preseason No. 1 nationally, the two-time defending national champion, and the winner of the last three Big Ten regular season titles.
How many Big Ten teams are ranked? Five of nine in the preseason top 20: Northwestern (1), Iowa (T-11), Maryland (13), Michigan (14), Rutgers (17).
Is there a Big Ten tournament? Yes, November 4 to 8 at Ohio State’s Buckeye Varsity Field in Columbus. Semifinals are Friday, November 6 on BTN; the championship is Sunday, November 8 on BTN. The winner gets the automatic NCAA bid.
Where can I watch? Seven regular season games are on the Big Ten Network, involving all nine schools. Everything else, conference and nonconference, streams on B1G+.
Why do Iowa and Indiana play twice? Because one game is a conference game and the other is not. Same for Iowa and Ohio State. It is a scheduling convenience, not an error.
Dig deeper
- Back a player. How fans can back field hockey players in the NIL era — 90 percent of what you send reaches them directly
- See the whole league. The Big Ten hub has every school and every sport
- Find your school. Every college with a field hockey program on the platform
- Know the market. Big Ten NIL deals, across the conference
- Know the sport. Field hockey is quietly producing college sports’ hardest-working athletes
- Rosters without borders. Field hockey in the USA, and how international students handle NIL
- Last November. Northwestern, Shippensburg and Tufts win field hockey national titles
- Read the other league. The 2026 ACC field hockey schedule, every game, every week
- Read the rest of the Big Ten. The 2026 Big Ten football, Big Ten volleyball and Big Ten women’s soccer schedules
- More field hockey. Everything in the Field Hockey section
