A Way-Too-Early Look at MSU Football’s 2026 Schedule

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While our great winter sports teams here at Michigan State have commanded most of the attention for these past few months, with spring sports just around the corner, it is never too early to take a peek ahead to warmer days in the early fall of 2026. We are just about 30 Saturdays away from September 5- which will be our first glimpse at what will be a new look football team in its’ first year with head coach Pat Fitzgerald at the helm. 

Just last week, the Big Ten Conference officially announced the Fall 2026 football schedule for its 18 member schools. Today, we will be taking our preliminary dive into the upcoming slate for your 2026 football Spartans. 

September 5: Toledo Rockets (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing MI)

September 12: Eastern Michigan Eagles (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI)

September 19: AT Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend IN) 

September 26: Nebraska Cornhuskers (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing MI)

October 3: AT Wisconsin Badgers (Camp Randall Stadium, Madison Wisconsin)

October 10: Illinois Fighting Illini (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing MI)

October 17: Northwestern Wildcats (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing MI)

October 24: AT UCLA Bruins (Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena, CA) 

October 31: Bye week

November 7: AT michigan wolverines (michigan stadium, ann arbor MI)

November 14: Washington Huskies (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing MI)

November 21: Oregon Ducks (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing MI)

November 28: AT Rutgers Scarlet Knights (SHI Stadium, Piscataway NJ)

My initial reaction is that this is definitely a tough schedule, as is the nature of today’s Big Ten, but not an impossible one. State avoids matchups with Ohio State and reigning National Champion Indiana (still weird to say that), gets Oregon and Washington at home, and enjoys a timely bye week before the highly anticipated first matchup between Pat Fitzgerald and Kyle Whittingham in the 2026 battle for Paul Bunyan. Let’s run through some of the initial storylines. 

The Non-Con Games: Double MAC

MSU will start the season with a pair of home matchups against MAC opponents. As of right now the Toledo game is scheduled for Sep. 5, the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. Don’t be surprised, however, to see this game moved to a Friday evening kickoff on what would be the 4th of September, as has been the case in each of the last five seasons (since 2021). In fact, State has kicked off their season under the Friday night lights in 13 of their last 15 seasons, dating back to 2011 and the only exception coming in 2017, as 2020 was as a result of the COVID pandemic. 

Whether the game is Friday or Saturday won’t matter much to the Toledo Rockets, who have quietly been one of the most consistently successful mid-major football programs in the past two decades or so. However, this off-season marks a seismic shift for Rocket football, as 10-year Head Coach Jason Candle, who brought Toledo to eight bowl games and never finished a season under .500, has departed the program for UConn. Mike Jacobs is in from Mercer to fill Candle’s shoes, and will have both the top-ranked high school recruiting class and transfer portal class in the Mid American Conference at his disposal. As far as week one matchups versus Group of Five teams go, this game is no throwaway for Michigan State, and Toledo will certainly prove an early challenge for MSU along with ushering in new eras for both programs. 

Week two will feature a matchup against the Eagles of Eastern Michigan, who will come to town following a 4-8 finish in the 2025 season. EMU is coached by Chris Creighton, who will be entering his 13th season at the helm in Ypsilanti, and has led Eastern to six bowl appearances over the course of his tenure. Behind center will be none other than former Spartan Noah Kim at the quarterback position. Kim was granted a 7th (!?) year of eligibility for the 2026 season, and is coming off starting all 12 games for Eastern and tossing 18 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and 2,817 yards a year ago. Further, the Eagles will also return their leading rusher in Dontae McMillan, who rushed for over 1,000 yards in 2025, and have added several pieces in the trenches on both sides of the ball by way of the transfer portal. While not as much of a traditionally successful MAC program as Toledo, EMU has the makings of what could definitely be a bowl team come the fall of 2026, and will have two early opportunities on the road vs MSU and also Wisconsin. 

The bottom line with these non-con games? The Coach Fitz era will start with a pair of winnable MAC matchups, but games not to be taken likely, and not without some noteworthy storylines. 

The Battle for the Megaphone Returns 

Week three will bring a huge challenge, and all but certainly a ranked opponent in a road matchup for Michigan State. For the first time since 2017, the Spartans will take on old rival Notre Dame, and the game will take place in South Bend. This rebirth of a trophy game will be the first round of a home-and-home series between the two schools, as MSU will host ND in 2027 during the non-conference schedule. The squads have split the last two of their matchups, with State taking home a 36-28 victory at Notre Dame in 2016, and the Irish emerging victorious in East Lansing in 2017 to the tune of a 38-18 victory. 

For Notre Dame, 2026 will be a year marked with sky-high expectations, thanks to the return of head coach Marcus Freeman, who decided to run it back for the Domers in ‘26 despite receiving heavy interest from NFL jobs this off-season. ND will enter this season on a 10-game win streak, with their only two losses coming in their own non-conference schedule a year ago at the hands of Miami and Texas A&M, a pair of playoff teams. As the committee’s decision in 2025 shows, losing both non-con games for a team without a conference championship to play in can be detrimental for any CFP hopes the Irish might have. It’s safe to say, Freeman and company will not be taking this game lightly. 

On the MSU side of things, this will be the first real opportunity for brand new HC Pat Fitzgerald and the Spartans to put the nation on notice. To compete against a college football powerhouse, and one who returns a plethora of production from a season ago at that, would instantly speak volumes about the direction of Fitz’s program in year one. In front of a raucous away crowd, likely in front of a national audience, reclaiming the Megaphone trophy would be an amazing start to the Fitzgerald era, and a signature win right off the bat in week three. 

Also of note, this year’s matchup with the Fighting Irish will mark the 60th anniversary of the 1966 “Game of the Century” between State and ND, a game which ended in a 10-10 tie and resulted in the two schools named co-national champions. Duffy Daugherty’s Spartans were recognized by the National Football Foundation as top dog, while Ara Parseghian’s Irish took the AP and UPI championship belts, respectively. 

Notable B1G Matchups Omitted

While State will face tough Big Ten conference competition, as always, this year does feature some scheduling anomalies. Aside from the Megaphone trophy, the only other trophy the Spartans will play for is good old Paul Bunyan, about an hour southeast come November. What does that mean? Michigan State will lose the chance to reclaim both the Land Grant Trophy and Old Brass Spittoon in 2026. 

This season will mark only the second time since 2014 that MSU will not play Penn State, and the first time since 2011 that State will not play Indiana. Also, as we have already mentioned, for the second year in a row Michigan State will not play Ohio State, who was on the schedule for 14 straight years from 2011-24, ever since the split of the Big Ten into Legends and Leaders. 

Marquee Home Matchups 

While Michigan State does get rivals Notre Dame and michigan on the road, the Spartan home schedule will not be without solid matchups. Between Nebraska, Illinois, Northwestern, Washington and Oregon, State’s home B1G opponents, all five teams combined for a 45-22 record in 2025. All five were bowl teams, and three of the five won their bowl games, with Oregon making it to the College Football Playoff semifinal after a postseason win over James Madison. All but Northwestern spent time in the AP Top-25 poll, and even the Wildcats received votes. Needless to say, Coach Fitz, while avoiding a couple of the conference’s top dogs, will still have his work cut out for him in conference play. 

B1G Away Games- Could Have Been Worse? 

I can realistically talk myself into a positive spin on all of Michigan State’s road conference matchups in 2026. To start off, getting Wisconsin on the road is never ideal, but the Badgers will be coming off of a big road trip to Happy Valley and notoriously rowdy Penn State crowd. Then, MSU gets a welcome West Coast trip to Pasadena right as the temperatures will start to drop in the Midwest. State’s late October flight to take on UCLA at the Rose Bowl will mark the program’s first time returning to the legendary stadium since January 1, 2014- a day that no MSU fan will soon forget. 

For a season in which that MSU will take on three of the four West Coast Big Ten teams, I will certainly take playing in front of a UCLA home crowd rather than in Seattle or Eugene. 

The next road trip game for State will come at u-m, and while playing at the home stadium of arrogance and cheaters is never ideal, MSU will get an extra week to prepare for the skunk weasels. The bye week will come at a clutch time for the Spartans, not only serving as a chance to rest up after a long road trip and providing the Halloween weekend off, but also allow MSU’s new coaching staff to have an extra week to immerse themselves in everything that is the Battle for Paul Bunyan. 

Finally, Michigan State will avoid the dreaded Thanksgiving week home game, playing in New Jersey at Rutgers to wrap up the regular season. For one thing, odds are SHI Stadium in Piscataway won’t exactly be a hostile environment for a team that may be needing a win to make bowl eligibility. For another, MSU ducks what has been a controversial question in Spartan nation over the past few years- will the final home game of the season be played in EL or at Ford Field in Detroit. I believe this is a situation we like to call two Scarlet Knights, one stone. 

Road challenges in the Big Ten are never easy. But it is no secret that MSU was fortunate to escape matchups in some of the houses of horror that line this storied conference, and not get stuck with any extreme scheduling challenges. 

Ex-Spartan QBs Return 

Joining the aforementioned Noah Kim, two other former Spartan signal callers will strap up the pads, and throw on new colors in Spartan Stadium this fall. Aidan Chiles, now donning the purple and white of Coach Fitz’s alma mater, will return to East Lansing in October, making for yet another interesting storyline in that matchup vs Northwestern. The final former Spartan gunslinger is Katin Houser, who also decided to take a trip to the Land of Lincoln for the 2026 season. Houser, who threw for an impressive 3,300 yards and 19 touchdowns with a 65.9% completion percentage last season at East Carolina of the American Athletic Conference, will be the presumed starting QB for the Illinois Fighting Illini. 

Will the former Michigan State quarterbacks run out of the tunnel to cheers or boos? Will they be thirsty for revenge or gracious to be returning to Spartan Stadium? Even in this era of the transfer portal, three former MSU starting field generals making a return to East Lansing seems wild. Who knows, maybe State will get matched up with LSU in bowl season and take on Sam Leavitt to make it four? 

No Shortage of Opportunities 

Pat Fitzgerald is entering a program that has not been to a bowl game since 2021. He’s taking over the reins of a team hungry for a success, and in front of a fanbase absolutely starving for a positive season. However, if the end of the Mel Tucker era and Jonathan Smith years were good for nothing else, they without question lowered the bar for MSU’s next coach. Even a 6-6 season with a bowl game appearance, passion on the sidelines, and improved culture at all levels would feel like a massive win for most State fans. Fitz does not have it easy with this schedule, but it is full of opportunity, seemingly having a balance of winnable games and chances against teams who have appeared in recent CFPs. 

With just about a month before spring ball, what are your initial thoughts on the Spartans’ draw? Did I miss any storylines you are keeping an eye on? What are your way-too-early record predictions? Let us know down in the comments! Go Green! 

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