Buck(Eyes) On The 2025 Michigan State Spartans

Now that The Big Ten has officially announced the early season kickoffs, and the reality of yet another Big Noon kickoff time has set in for the upcoming Texas/Ohio State match-up on August 30th, we can resume our look at the 2025 Big Ten opponents that Ohio State will not be facing. In previous weeks, we have looked at Indiana, Iowa, and Maryland. Now we can turn our focus on a long-time Big Ten rival and occasional heartbreaker in Ohio State football history, the Michigan State Spartans.

2024 Results: Michigan State went 5-7 in their first year under the coaching of Jonathan Smith. While Spartan fans were understandably disappointed to be sitting at home during bowl season, Michigan State had close losses on the road at Boston College (23-19) and at Michigan (24-17) that spelled the difference between a winning or losing record. Their worst loss was at home versus Ohio State (38-7), when Jeremiah Smith put on a show for a national television audience.

Next Scheduled Regular Season Game Versus Ohio State: Michigan State is not scheduled to return to Ohio Stadium until the 2027 season. Unless the teams happen to wind up facing each other in The Big Ten Championship Game or The College Football Playoff (more on that below), these teams will have to wait at least two years for their next scheduled contest.

Biggest Personnel Losses From 2024: Michigan State had only one player selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, and that was G Luke Newman, who was selected in the 6th round by the Chicago Bears. Michigan State had several players leave via the transfer portal, with DE Ken Talley (Arkansas) among the notable players not returning to East Lansing.

Biggest Personnel Gains For 2025: While not overly exotic, Jonathan Smith and his staff brought in four new offensive linemen in Conner Moore, Matt Gulbin, Luka Vincic, and Caleb Carter. Moore was also pursued by Ohio State in the transfer portal, and could be a crucial piece in Jonathan Smith’s efforts to rebuild the Spartan offensive line for his ground-oriented offensive scheme.

Most Challenging Portion Of The 2025 Schedule: For Michigan State to get back to a bowl game, they will need to have their magical number of six wins prior to when the calendar turns to November. November 1st is on the road at Minnesota, November 15th is home versus Penn State, and November 22nd is at Iowa. November 29th is the regular season finale versus Maryland. If Michigan State can go 2-2 during this stretch, that should be considered an improvement by the program.

Possibility Of A Big Ten Championship Game Appearance In 2025? Sparty, No! Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. Michigan State is highly unlikely to make the trek to Indianapolis on December 6th.

Jonathan Smith is a good coach, who demonstrated the ability to build a physically tough program when he was at Oregon State. The skepticism about how Smith would assimilate to a traditional Midwest program like Michigan State was warranted, but the results from last year should have Michigan State fans optimistic about the future.

Another year of development for Aidan Chiles at quarterback should have Michigan State fans excited. The non-conference schedule is not overly imposing (Western Michigan, Boston College, and Youngstown State), so it is certainly plausible that Michigan State could be 3-0 heading into Big Ten conference play. With home games versus UCLA (October 11th) and the aforementioned Maryland game where Michigan State will likely be favored, all the Spartans would need is to pull off one more win on the road or in their home game versus Michigan on October 25th, and they would be bowl eligible.

Next week, the focus will shift to the 2025 Nebraska Cornhuskers.

As always, let me know what you think.