Michigan State’s 2022 football season took a meaningful turn on Friday when the university announced that Washington will be replacing Boise State on the Spartans’ schedule next year and in 2023.
Michigan State had been scheduled to play Boise State in 2022 and ’23 as the final two-thirds of a two-for-one contract with the Broncos which began in 2012.
Michigan State and Boise State mutually agreed to end their home-and-home series in 2022 and 2023 without penalty to either school.
Michigan State had been previously scheduled to play Washington in a home-and-home in the 2028 and 2031 seasons. The change in schedule moves up the Spartans’ home-and-home agreement with the Huskies.
It will be MSU’s first trip to play at the University of Washington since 1970.
Michigan State now has non-conference openings in its 2028 and 2031 schedules.
WHAT IT MEANS: The schedule just got tougher, but more entertaining.
Next year, Michigan State will open the season against Western Michigan and Akron at home before an attractive and challenging game at Washington on Sept. 17.
Washington was 3-1 last season in a COVID-shortened season under first-year coach Jimmy Lake. For what it’s worth, notable handicapper Phil Steele lists Washington on his short list of teams capable of making a huge breakthrough on a national scale in 2021.
Last year, Lake replaced Chris Petersen, who surprisingly retired after an 8-5 season in 2019.
When Michigan State signed its two-for-one deal with Boise State, the Broncos were a perennial Top 20 program. Getting the Broncos in Spartan Stadium for a night game in 2012 turned out to be a notable event.
Boise State is still a quality Group of Five program, but not nearly as powerful as the Broncos were 10 years ago.
In scheduling Boise State for a two-for-one, the Spartans benefitted from getting a name program to visit Spartan Stadium in 2012 while delaying the return trip to Boise for more than 10 years, with the feeling that by the time the contract was finished, the Spartans wouldn’t be playing as tough of a Boise State team on the road in the 2020s as they would have been a decade earlier.
On the positive side, Michigan State gets to trade a trip to Boise for a trip to Pac-12 power Washington. Playing at Boise was not going to be easy, despite the fact that the Broncos aren’t what they were in the 2010s. But playing at Washington figures to be tougher.
Schedule strength is only part of the equation. The opportunity to face a name Pac-12 opponent like Washington will put Michigan State on a bigger stage with a peer program for a game with more of a national feel.
Michigan State was able to pull out of the remainder of the Boise State program without payment or penalty.
In 2023, Michigan State will begin the season with three straight non-conference home games against Central Michigan, Richmond and Washington. Adding the Huskies to that slate, replacing Boise State, will be welcomed by season ticket holders, although the possibility of leaving Spartan Stadium with a loss will increase.
In the College Football Playoff era, since 2014, only 11 programs have participated in the national semifinals. Michigan State (in 2015) and Washington (in 2016) are two of the 11; both teams lost to Alabama.
The other eight programs that have participated in the College Football Playoff include Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, Notre Dame and LSU.