After watching Michigan State football barely squeak by Florida Atlantic in their season opener on Friday 16-10, I did not anticipate writing a post about how the Spartans set a Big Ten record. But here we are.
As shocking as this may sound, Michigan State leads the Big Ten when it comes to consecutive non-conference home opener wins. Yes, I realize that's a mouthful, but it is in fact a real stat that the Big Ten Football Twitter account shared after the game.
Michigan State leads the @BigTen with 15 consecutive non-conference home opener wins🤩#B1GFootball pic.twitter.com/vNmnS0kc7U
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) August 31, 2024
I saw a lot of rival fanbases making fun of the Big Ten for posting this in the comments, and in all honesty I thought it was a little ridiculous at firs toot. But after thinking about it a little longer this actually is a really great achievement.
The main reason this is significant is because it's always important to start your season strong. A win can do so much good for a team's confidence early in the season, but on the flip side losing one of the first games of your season can be demoralizing. Especially if that loss is a massive upset like we've seen many Big Ten teams suffer in recent years.
This record set by Michigan State also hasn't been easy. A common theme for MSU at the start of most seasons is underperforming against teams they should dominate. Friday night was a prime example of this, but this has become all too common over the years.
Michigan State however has had some massive wins in their home openers during this streak as well. No game stands out more than their wild win over Oregon in 2015 and Boise State in 2012 was memorable, too.
So those fans that decided to make fun of Michigan State for holding this record now make no sense to me. They're trying to paint starting with a win at home as a bad thing, but when using common sense we know that is extremely important to do. Maybe those fans are just upset that their teams haven't been able to accomplish this.
I also can't get the thought out of my head that Jonathan Smith setting a current Big Ten record in his first game at Michigan State could be a sign for great things to come in the future.