Breaking down Michigan State's 2024 football schedule

It’s a new era of college football and Michigan State’s 2024 season schedule certainly reflects that.

The Big Ten has expanded from 14 teams to 18, adding Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington into the fold. With the expansion comes the elimination of the East and West divisions. Each team’s schedule will vary more year to year than it did in the divisional structure, especially with only 12 annual protected matchups in the Big Ten.

Michigan State has one of those 12 protected matchups – the battle for the Paul Bunyan Trophy against in-state rival Michigan. The Spartans will play the other 16 teams in the conference every other year, rotating home and away.

MSU’s 2024 schedule features some winnable games mixed in with a daunting four game stretch that will test Jonathan Smith’s unit in year one.

Below is an in-depth look at each opponent on the schedule along with a ranking of the easiest games and the toughest games on the 2024 slate.