Notre Dame and Michigan State should play every year

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

I’ve grown weary of this new modern age of college football. While many fans are up in arms about the transfer portal and NIL, I’m more annoyed than ever about the scheduling trends across the sport due to an ever-changing postseason and the hunt for television money. A lot of college football traditions and rivalries that have lasted for over a century have been tossed aside with almost no respect by schools, conferences, networks, media members, and fans.

Notre Dame isn’t innocent in all of this. The Irish famously signed an exclusive television contract with NBC in the early nineties that was seen at the time by most of the country as some sort of greedy cash grab. In reality, it was a bold move to strengthen its position as an independent in football, and ironically enough, the rest of the country followed their lead (in a way) as they made their own moves via conference realignment to bring in as much money as possible.

Those moves have brought us to the current situation we are living with in 2026. The Irish aligned themselves with the ACC starting in 2014, and tough moves were made to accommodate the new scheduling needs. Purdue and Michigan State, who have long been on Notre Dame’s schedule (along with the Michigan Wolverines who had been an almost annual game since 1978) were now just random teams in the midwest — programs that could be scheduled later down the road.

While you can make an argument for any of the three Big 10 schools that Notre Dame played annually to ALWAYS be on the schedule, only Michigan State checks every box as a rival that should be played every year.

Saturday’s game will be the 80th all-time meeting between the two schools. Notre Dame has only played three other schools more times than they have against the Spartans. While the Irish hold a 49-21-1 advantage over Sparty, the series is tied 10-10 in the last 20 meetings.

So the Irish have played them for a long time, and it’s been a pretty good and even series for a long while… what else should these two team play every year? What if I told you that there’s the Navy wildcard here? While Notre Dame fans constantly try to justify the annual series against Navy as paying them back for keeping the school afloat during WWII — Michigan State is ALSO in the same category here. Michigan, those bigoted bastards in Ann Arbor, tried to get the rest of the Big 10 to blackball the Irish from their schedules, and Michigan State remained determined to play Notre Dame every season.

New Michigan State head coach, Pat Fitzgerald, was very plainspoken in his weekly press conference this week. He wants the rivalry back on the schedule every year, and unlike his take on cell phones… he’s not wrong.

“Obviously this is a storied rivalry and one that in the future I wish we could do yearly. Scheduling is a pain in the neck for everybody, but it’s always great to have your rivalry games on the schedule.”

“Not to play this game every year, it just stinks, I think for both fanbases and both teams because it’s one of the great storied traditions and rivalries in college football.”

Notre Dame and Michigan State are only scheduled for this year and next year, but I think if Notre Dame wanted to pursue more games with Sparty — they’d be ready and willing to schedule the Irish.

It does feel like we are all waiting on the College Football Playoff’s decision to expand to 24 teams — or not. I’m not a fan of the expansion, but if it does expand, it definitely would allow more teams to be more willing to schedule a team like Notre Dame (unless your name is Lincoln Riley with USC or Curt Cignetti and you are a flat out coward).

Play Michigan State every year (or at least 6/10 or something). Let’s make a deal.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos