This article has been updated on January 10, 2024 to reflect the news that Louisiana has cancelled its scheduled visit to East Lansing on Sept. 14.
After releasing opponent pairings for the 2024 through 2028 seasons last month, the Big Ten on Thursday afternoon released the conference schedule dates for the 2024 football season.
Revealed live on the Big Ten Network, Michigan State's 2024 schedule was initially released in full in addition to the three non-conference games already on the calendar. However, Jan. 10, 2024 has since seen a wrench thrown into that schedule as the Louisiana Rajin' Cajuns announced they were cancelling their visit to East Lansing on Sept. 14 in Week Three in order to play at Wake Forest instead. MSU now has three openings on its calendar to find an opponent to schedule as bye weeks are also on the calendar twice on Oct. 12 and Nov. 9. We'll keep you updated as developments arise.
This marks the fourth time that changes were required to the league portion of the Spartans' schedule since the Big Ten first released it in August 2018. Since then, changes adopted during the COVID-19-impacted season of 2020 that were to be carried forward followed by two rounds of expansion have wreaked havoc to the prior schedule adjustments. Those changes resulted in multiple iterations of opponent pairings and venue changes being required and announced before being scrapped, and ultimately, the final updated league schedule release announced on Thursday gives the full story.
MSU will face a tough travel schedule, totaling approximately 6,743 miles of plane travel as the team faces a non-conference trip to Boston College (Sept. 21), along with conference games at Maryland (Sept. 7), Oregon (Oct. 5), and Illinois (Nov. 16). Those 2024 road games will result in a charter aircraft for team travel, while a game at intrastate rival Michigan on Oct. 26 will be reached by charter bus due to the short distance down U.S. Interstate Highway 96.
Additionally, visits in Big Ten by Ohio State (Sept. 28), Iowa (Oct. 19), Indiana (Nov. 2), Purdue (Nov. 23), and Rutgers (Nov. 30) also await the Spartans in 2024. Previously announced home matchups in the non-conference slate include Florida Atlantic (Aug. 31), but the visit by Louisiana (Sept. 14) has been cancelled due to the opponent backing out in favor of a visit to take on Wake Forest.
Notable arrangements for the season include an early Big Ten road game at Maryland in Week Two. That matchup will mark the start of conference play for the league. Later, MSU's conference home season opener comes in Week Five against the Buckeyes. No time will be given to rest for the Spartans following that game as a long trek west to play at Autzen Stadium against Oregon in Week Six follows, which is the first trip to Eugene in a decade for MSU.
Michigan State gets the first of two byes following the Oregon trip before then welcoming Iowa. The Wolverines await a week later for a Halloween weekend matchup, and then the Spartans return home to play Indiana during the first weekend of November.
A second bye follows IU before the final road game of the season at Illinois in Week 12. Two-straight home games close out the season against Purdue and Rutgers, respectively, as the contest versus the Scarlet Knights notably marks the regular season finale. That matchup against Rutgers will be the first time that it will be the regular-season finale between the two programs since 2018, and just the third time overall as conference foes.
The full schedule is available below:
A few things to keep in mind are that some games may still be adjusted to Sunday of Labor Day Weekend and Friday nights throughout the season (MSU traditionally has played its home opener that weekend on Friday night).
The Spartans also helped the Big Ten by agreeing to a Black Friday prime-time matchup against Penn State this season, moving the home season finale to Ford Field as a result. That arrangement is a casualty of the new media rights deal that guarantees a prime-time game on Black Friday for NBC. No second Black Friday game has been announced as of yet for the conference besides the annual Nebraska-Iowa game that the Huskers carried over from their tradition started in the 1990s when still part of the Big Eight Conference.
The full conference wide 2024 schedule is available below:
