Michigan State Football's 2024, 2025 Big Ten Opponents Revealed
Changes are coming to the Big Ten Conference and, as a result, Michigan State's football schedule and opponents have been impacted.
Once USC and UCLA join the conference in 2024, the Big Ten is doing away with divisions and adopting a new "flex protect plus" model, which will protect several of the league's most important rivalry games, while allowing more flexibility for a league which will soon swell to 16 members.
Michigan State has one protected rival under the new format — the Michigan Wolverines — whom the Spartans will continue to play on an annual basis. All other Big Ten opponents will be on a rotating schedule for MSU.
In addition to announcing the new format late last week, the Big Ten also revealed every program's conference opponents for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, and we now have a complete look at who will be lining up across the field from the Spartans over those two years.
Michigan State's 2024 schedule will look very similar to the ones the program has played over the previous decade. All six of the opponents the Spartans have faced in the Big Ten East division are present once again in 2024.
We're still well over a year before MSU will play this schedule, which makes predictions next to impossible. With that being said, this looks like a fairly manageable schedule for the Spartans. Outside of Ohio State, the home slate in 2024 features several favorable matchups. Illinois seems to be on the rise under head coach Brett Bielema, but Michigan State should be favored in most of those games.
The road slate is much more challenging, with trips to Michigan and Penn State. Boston College, Maryland and Nebraska are all beatable opponents, but the Spartans will need to play well in those contests.
Moving on to the 2025 schedule...
Here's where things get really interesting for Michigan State. Only three former Big Ten East opponents — Michigan, Penn State and Indiana — are on the schedule, while the Spartans get their first crack at the two new additions to the Big Ten.
Michigan State will welcome UCLA to East Lansing in 2025. Unless the Spartans and Bruins meet in a bowl game this winter, that will be the first meeting between the two programs since 1974. MSU and UCLA have split six previous meetings on the gridiron.
The Spartans will also travel to Los Angeles for their first meeting with USC since 1990. Michigan State is 4-4 in eight matchups all-time against the Trojans.
After road games against the Wolverines and Nittany Lions the year prior, the Spartans get each of those two opponents at home in 2025. All three of Michigan State's non-conference games will be played at Spartan Stadium, and Northwestern will make the trip to East Lansing as well.
Once again, the 2025 road slate looks to be challenging. In addition to traveling to USC, the Spartans will also make trips to Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota who have each hovered around the eight-win mark over the past several years. Wrapping up the road slate is a trip to Bloomington, where Michigan State will battle Indiana for the "Old Brass Spittoon" once again.
The changes to the landscape of college athletics has had a huge impact, but Michigan State is in a strong spot within the Big Ten Conference. There's no doubt that the Spartans will face challenging and competitive schedules in football for years to come.
