Michigan State football adds third Friday night game this season

Add another Friday night game to Michigan State football’s schedule this fall.

The Spartans open the season by hosting Florida Atlantic and that game was moved up a day to Friday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. (BTN), the Big Ten announced Thursday afternoon. That’s the third Friday kickoff for Michigan State this season after games at Oregon (Oct. 4, 9 p.m. ET) and at home against Purdue (Nov. 22, 8 p.m.) were revealed last week by FOX Sports.

Moving up Michigan State’s opener against FAU continues a recent tradition for the program. Since 2011, the Spartans’ first game of the season was played on a Friday night every year except two – in 2017 against Bowling Green and all its 2020 games were on Saturdays due to the pandemic.

Michigan State will be one of two Big Ten teams opening the season on Aug. 30, along with Wisconsin at home against Western Michigan. Three Big Ten teams kick off the schedule a day earlier as Rutgers (vs. Howard), Minnesota (vs. North Carolina), and Illinois (vs. Eastern Illinois) are all hosting their opener on Thursday, Aug. 29.

The Big Ten is expanding to 18 teams this fall with the addition of USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon. A new media rights deal is leading to BTN, FOX, CBS and NBC splitting up the schedule with more games moving off Saturday.

In addition to the Spartans opening the season on a Friday night against the Owls, the Big Ten announced kickoff times for their following two games. Michigan State will play its road opener at Maryland on Sept. 7 and then return home to host Prairie View A&M on Sept. 14 and both those games will start at 3:30 p.m. and will be aired on BTN.

Michigan State is coming off back-to-back losing seasons and Jonathan Smith is heading into his first year leading the Spartans. He’s six months into the job and has overhauled the roster.

Michigan State’s 2024 schedule:

Aug. 30 (Friday): FLORIDA ATLANTIC, 7 p.m.

Sept. 7: at Maryland, 3:30 p.m.

Sept. 14: PRAIRIE VIEW A&M, 3:30 p.m.

Sept. 21: at Boston College

Sept. 28: OHIO STATE

Oct. 4 (Friday): at Oregon, 9 p.m. ET

Oct. 12: BYE

Oct. 19: IOWA

Oct. 26: at Michigan

Nov. 2: INDIANA

Nov. 9: BYE

Nov. 16: at Illinois

Nov. 22 (Friday): PURDUE, 8 p.m.

Nov. 30: RUTGERS