All eyes were on Tom Izzo and the Spartan hoops team on Tuesday night as they crawled out of a 12-point hole late to beat Rutgers in overtime, but Pat Fitzgerald and Michigan State football found out what their Big Ten schedule would be in 2026.
The Big Ten schedules were released right before the basketball game on Tuesday night, and Michigan State fans had to like how it looks.
The Spartans’ first complete schedule under Fitzgerald looks like this:
MSU's full 2026 schedule:
— Jacob Cotsonika (@jacobcotsonika) January 27, 2026
9/5- Toledo
9/12- Eastern Michigan
9/19- at Notre Dame
9/26- Nebraska
10/3- at Wisconsin
10/10- Illinois
10/17 - Northwestern
10/24 - at UCLA
BYE
11/7 - at Michigan
11/14 - Washington
11/21 - Oregon
11/28 - at Rutgers
The non-conference matchups and dates were already known, but now we officially know when the Michigan game is and the order of opponents.
And honestly, it’s a favorable slate for the Spartans.
Michigan State has a great chance to make a bowl
Although the team isn’t even fully-constructed yet, as long as it’s better-coached than it was this past season, the Spartans should be just fine. With Fitzgerald at the helm, I have a good feeling that this team is going to be well-coached.
When you look at the Big Ten schedule, Michigan State’s path to a bowl game is pretty clear.
The Spartans should open the season 2-0 with wins over Toledo and Eastern Michigan, and then I see a loss at Notre Dame, albeit a surprisingly-close effort. The Spartans will open with Nebraska at home and win that one to improve to 3-1 before losing a tight one at Wisconsin. They’ll “upset” Illinois and then Fitzgerald will get revenge on his former program, and Aidan Chiles, to improve to 5-2.
From there, all they will need to do is win one of the following five games:
- at UCLA
- at Michigan
- Washington
- Oregon
- at Rutgers
To me, that looks like a clear path to the postseason for Fitzgerald in his first year as head coach. Even if he loses one of the two home games against Illinois and Northwestern, all that would likely stand between him and a bowl berth is a home game against Washington, and road games against UCLA and Rutgers. This team should be able to win at least 1-2 of those games.
We’ll see how the roster comes together before the season, but this schedule has me thinking bowl game for the first time since 2021.