CHARLOTTE, N.C. (September 17, 2026) – Fastbreak AI, the leader in AI-powered sports operations, today announced a multi-year agreement with the Big Ten Conference to use the Fastbreak Pro Schedule platform across men's and women's sports. Notably, the technology was used to create the Big Ten’s football schedule and men’s and women’s basketball schedules.
Under the agreement, the Big Ten will use Fastbreak's AI-powered scheduling system to support competitive fairness, optimize travel, improve operational efficiency, support broadcast objectives and manage the increasing complexity of modern collegiate athletics scheduling.
"As the conference continues to grow and evolve, it is critical we invest in tools that support the overall student-athlete experience and meet the expectations of our schools and partners," Big Ten Chief Operating Officer Kerry Kenny said. "Basketball shows why. Coordinating men's and women's schedules across 18 institutions, three time zones and four broadcast partners involves thousands of competing requirements, and Fastbreak gave our staff the ability to evaluate options at a tremendous level of frequency and detail. We have always benefitted from great partners in the scheduling space and Fastbreak proved to our membership that they will be a great asset moving forward."
Basketball is one of the most constrained scheduling problems in college sports. A single conference calendar has to reconcile arena availability at campuses that share buildings with concerts, commencements and other sports; travel that now stretches from coast-to-coast; rest requirements that support student-athletes' recovery between games; and the coordination of men's and women's schedules across shared venues and dates.
"The Big Ten operates at one of the highest levels in collegiate athletics and requires scheduling technology that can handle enormous complexity with precision and flexibility," Fastbreak AI Co-Founder and CEO John Stewart said. "Basketball is the clearest example. Hundreds of iterations went into these schedules, and that is the point. When you can produce and evaluate a complete schedule in minutes or hours instead of weeks or months, you stop asking whether a calendar works and start asking whether it is the best one available. We're proud to partner with the conference across both men's and women's sports.”
Rather than settle for the first workable calendar, the Big Ten worked through hundreds of full schedule iterations before arriving at the final versions. Each pass adjusted priorities, tested a different balance of travel, rest and competitive equity, and produced a complete schedule for review along with detailed metrics. Fastbreak’s platform allowed the conference to evaluate the tradeoffs of each decision and continue refining the schedule before committing to a final version.
Fastbreak Pro Schedule is trusted by more than 100 professional and collegiate leagues globally, including every major league in the United States. The platform uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and novel optimization technology to evaluate trillions of scheduling permutations while balancing league-specific requirements.
“The Big Ten has some of the most unique scheduling challenges in college sports,” Fastbreak AI Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Chris Groer said. “Basketball schedules involve cross-country travel, arena availability challenges, a calendar where teams can play on any day of the week, and games are broadcast across multiple media partners. Meeting all these demands while also maintaining competitive equity leads to challenges that are, in reality, a smaller version of the 1200-game NBA schedule. We're proud to partner with the Big Ten to solve incredible challenges like these across all of their men’s and women’s sports.”
As conference footprints expand nationally and media rights demands continue to evolve, scheduling has become one of the most strategic operational functions in sports. Fastbreak's platform gives administrators the ability to model competitive and operational scenarios before finalizing a calendar, then regenerate it quickly when constraints are changed. The Big Ten will deploy the Pro Schedule platform across multiple sports as part of its continued investment in innovation and operational excellence for both men's and women's athletics programs.
The agreement further expands Fastbreak AI's presence in collegiate athletics as conferences increasingly adopt AI-driven infrastructure to support scheduling, operations, and long-term strategic planning.
About the Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois. Founded in 1896, the conference is composed of world-class academic institutions and nationally recognized athletics programs competing across men’s and women’s sports. Learn more at Big Ten Conference.
About Fastbreak AI
Fastbreak AI delivers AI-powered scheduling and sports operations software for professional leagues, clubs, collegiate conferences, and international federations. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Fastbreak AI supports organizations worldwide, including leading NBA, MLS and NHL leagues and collegiate conferences like the SEC, with technology that improves scheduling, coordination, and performance at every level of sport. Learn more at www.fastbreak.ai.
