Before we know it, Michigan State football will be back in our lives so there’s no better time than now to look ahead to the upcoming 2026 schedule.
The Spartans will look to break their four-year bowl drought this upcoming season under new head coach Pat Fitzgerald. If Fitzgerald and the Spartans are able to do that, they’ll have to do it against a tough slate of games.
Michigan State’s schedule consists of numerous College Football Playoff contenders and plenty of other schools that’ll be in the mix to reach a bowl game this fall. So let’s take a look ahead to the upcoming season and rank the games on the schedule based on difficulty from easiest to hardest.
12. Eastern Michigan (home)
Date: September 12
Chris Creighton has been the most successful coach in Eastern Michigan history, but things have fallen off a bit in the last two seasons and transfer portal has really taken a toll on Mid-American Conference (MAC) programs as a whole. So this feels like an easy choice to start off our rankings with this as the easiest game on the Spartans’ 2026 schedule.
11. Toledo (home)
Date: September 4
Toledo has been a traditional power in the MAC, but longterm successful coach Jason Candle left this offseason for UConn. So what does that mean for the Rockets this upcoming season? That’s still a relative unknown and they certainly could be live for an upset in the season-opener. But the talent gap between Michigan State and Toledo still puts this as one of the easiest games on the slate.
10. Rutgers (away)
Date: November 28
Could this game be a battle for a bowl game for both the Spartans and Scarlet Knights? That’s certainly a possibility, which would make this more difficult than where I currently have it ranked. But I’m not particularly high on Rutgers entering the season and envision them being a team with not much to play for in this regular season finale, which makes this a much more winnable road game.
9. Northwestern (home)
Date: October 17
Despite this game falling on the “easier” side of these rankings, this game is going to be tricky tough for Michigan State and shows how difficult this schedule truly is for a middle of the road team like the Spartans. Aidan Chiles will return to Spartan Stadium with presumably revenge on his mind so I fully expect this to be a challenging game.
8. Nebraska (home)
Date: September 26
Nebraska is a hard team to assess given the offensive turnover we saw from last year, most notably the departure of two-year starting quarterback Dylan Raiola. I fully anticipate the Cornhuskers being a bowl eligible team, though, and while this game is ranked on the lower end, it’ll still be a tough early season challenge for the Spartans. It’ll be a telling game for Michigan State and what’s to come for the rest of the season.
7. UCLA (away)
Date: October 24
UCLA has a lot of positive momentum right now under new head coach Bob Chesney so I expect them to be much improved this upcoming season. That improvement combined with this being a cross country trip and I have this being a difficult matchup for the Spartans in late October.
6. Illinois (home)
Date: October 10
Illinois has been a consistent upper-tier Big Ten team under Bret Bielema and I expect that to be the same this upcoming season. Sure, they do lose a lot of important pieces from last year’s squad — especially in the. trenches. But this is going to be a tough homecoming matchup for the Spartans and quite frankly would’t argue too much against having this higher in these rankings.
5. Wisconsin (away)
Date: October 3
This one is less about how good Wisconsin may be this year — but, for the record, I do expect them to bounce back — but more about where in the schedule this game lands. This game comes after back-to-back tilts at Notre Dame and home vs. Nebraska, which will be the Spartans first true tests of the year. So this could be a breaking point game for the entire season depending on how those two matchups play out.
4. Michigan (away)
Date: November 7
Is this too low for a road game against a preseason College Football Playoff contender? Maybe. But I have a reasoning for why this game falls here and that’s because the Spartans have a scheduling advantage over the Wolverines in this year’s matchup: a week prior bye. The Spartans will have an off week before they head to Ann Arbor, Mich., while Michigan will be playing a conference matchup. This slight scheduling quirk slots this game one spot lower in my rankings despite it being a tough rivalry road game.
3. Washington (home)
Date: November 14
I just went into large part why the Michigan game ranks behind this home tilt against Washington in the previous writeup. Another factor for why this game ranks slightly higher than the Michigan game is because it simply directly follows that game. We all know the importance of beating the Wolverines for the Spartans so I wouldn’t be shocked if we see a lackluster showing against another playoff contender in the Huskies the following week.
2. Oregon (home)
Date: November 20
There’s an argument to be made that this is the toughest game for the Spartans this season. But with it being at home, I have it slightly behind my top toughest game. Oregon is a juggernaut and is a true national championship contender this season. That level of talent combined with this being a short week turnaround and I have a hard time seeing Michigan State coming out victorious on senior day this year.
1. Notre Dame (away)
Date: September 19
Just like Oregon, Notre Dame is a true national championship contender and most likely will be a two (maybe three) touchdown favorite over the Spartans in this early season non-conference matchup. Could Michigan State be better than expected and play the Fighting Irish tough in this one? I can see that happening. But I don’t have an upset win over Notre Dame on my bingo card. Not in year one of the Fitzgerald rebuild, at least.
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Ranking MSU football’s 2026 opponents from easiest to hardest matchup
