FOX college football analyst ranks Michigan State comically low in FBS team rankings

It’s no secret that Michigan State isn’t expected to do much damage in the Big Ten this season.

Pat Fitzgerald’s first season in East Lansing is projected to go just about as well as the final two years of Mel Tucker and then the following two under Jonathan Smith. For some reason, that just doesn’t seem correct. While the roster needed a massive overhaul and still isn’t where it needs to be, Fitzgerald is a proven coach and he’s already building a solid foundation.

The team may not be the most talented, on paper, but there are going to be some surprise standouts this season that help elevate Michigan State past its preseason expectation which, according to Vegas, is around 3.5 wins.

Vegas is being a little harsh on Michigan State during the preseason, but the projected win total isn’t even the most disrespectful preview for the Spartans.

No, that comes from FOX Sports college football analyst RJ Young who ranked all 138 FBS teams and Michigan State is much, much lower than you’d probably expect.

Young has the Spartans ranked No. 120 ahead of the 2026 season.

No, that’s not a typo. Young has Michigan State near the bottom of the entire Power Four. In fact, he believes that Michigan State will be the second-worst team in the Power Four this season, if you don’t count former Power Five members Oregon State and Washington State.

Young has Michigan State ahead of only Stanford in the “Ultimate 138” college football rankings.

Yes, that also means that Michigan State is the worst team in the Big Ten entering the season, behind perennial bottom-dweller Purdue which has been at the bottom of everyone else’s list.

We get it, Michigan State is expected to be pretty bad this season, but there’s just no way that a team with a returning starting quarterback, an All-Big Ten caliber running back, a much-improved offensive line, and a defense led by two elite defensive minds is going to be the second-worst team in the entire Power Four this season. Fitzgerald isn’t going to let that happen.

Michigan State isn’t that bad

Not making a bowl game since 2021 and shuffling through several coaching staffs since then is a good enough reason to rank Michigan State this low, but the Spartans haven’t won fewer than four games in a decade and to assume that they’re going to be on that level in year one of an actual respected head coach’s tenure is preposterous.

As previously stated, the offensive line, run game, and pass game should all improve from a forgettable 2025 season when nothing went right offensively.

Defensively, improvement is expected under Max Bullough and Joe Rossi and while the pieces aren’t quite there yet, there’s a strong foundation with guys like Jordan Hall, Charles Brantley, Nikai Martinez, Ben Roberts, and Kenny Soares Jr.

This team has a good mix of veterans and young guys and while the talent, on paper, isn’t going to blow anyone away, this feels like a six-win team.

If 5-6 wins makes the Spartans a bottom-two Power Four team, then it might be a historically-good year for the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12.

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