Another Friday night game will be added to the Michigan State football schedule this fall.
The Spartans open the season at home against Florida Atlantic University, but the Big Ten announced Thursday afternoon that the game will be moved up a day to 7 p.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 30. It will be Michigan State's third Friday kickoff this season, with FOX Sports announcing games against Oregon (Oct. 4, 9 p.m. ET) and at home against Purdue (Nov. 22, 8 p.m. ET) last week.
Michigan State moving up its season opener against FAU has become a recent tradition for the school. Since 2011, the Spartans' first game of the season has been played on a Friday night every year except for two other times, against Bowling Green in 2017 and in 2020, when all games were played on a Saturday because of the pandemic.
Michigan State is one of two Big Ten Conference teams that will open their season on Aug. 30; Wisconsin will also open at home against Western Michigan. Three Big Ten Conference teams will begin their schedule a day earlier, with Rutgers (vs. Howard), Minnesota (vs. North Carolina) and Illinois (vs. Eastern Illinois) all opening their seasons on Thursday, Aug. 29.
The Big Ten will expand to 18 teams this fall with the addition of USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon, and new media rights deals will see BTN, FOX, CBS and NBC split up the schedule and play more games on Saturdays.
In addition to the Spartans opening their season against the Owls on Friday night, the Big Ten announced kickoff times for the next two games. Michigan State will open its season on the road at Maryland on Sept. 7 before returning home to take on Prairie View A&M University on Sept. 14. Both games will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on BTN.
Michigan State is coming off a second consecutive losing season and Jonathan Smith is in his first year at the helm of the Spartans, having revamped the roster in his six months on the job.
Michigan State University 2024 Schedule:
Friday, August 30: Florida Atlantic, 7 p.m.
September 7: Maryland, 3:30 p.m.
Sept. 14: Prairie View A&M, 3:30 p.m.
September 21: Boston University
September 28: Ohio State University
Friday, October 4: Oregon, 9 p.m. ET
October 12th: BYE
October 19: Iowa
October 26: Michigan
November 2: Indiana
November 9: BYE
November 16: Illinois
Friday, Nov. 22: Purdue, 8 p.m.
November 30: Rutgers
