Oregon football 2024 summer opponent preview: Meet the Michigan State Spartans

Let's start learning about another one of Oregon's foes. Here's a great chance to learn more about the Michigan State Spartans ahead of the start of the 2024 Oregon football season.

Michigan State's head coach Jonathan Smith looks on during the first day of football camp on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in East Lansing.
Michigan State's head coach Jonathan Smith looks on during the first day of football camp on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

If you’re not really all that familiar with the Michigan State Spartans, now is as good a time as any could be for taking the chance to learn a little bit. So, as the Oregon football team prepares for their first season in the Big Ten, let’s start going over a traditional Big Ten opponent that has found its way onto the 2024 Oregon football schedule. 

Who is the opponent? Well, let’s learn about the Michigan State Spartans and what they’re bringing to Eugene this fall.

Michigan State football head coach: Jonathan Smith

Oregon football fans (and Oregon State football fans) are certainly going to know who Jonathan Smith is. They’re also going to know that Smith (who was previously the head coach in Corvallis) is now the head coach of the Spartans.

Michigan State: Historical win-loss record

There’s a lot of history for the Michigan State Spartans and they happen to have a total of 730 wins, 487 losses, and 44 ties (that seems like a lot of ties, for some reason) as they head into the 2024 college football season. Michigan State boasts about a few claimed national championships from a very long time ago, and 11 conference titles (nine of which were Big Ten championships).

2023 Michigan State football win-loss record

Things weren’t great for the Michigan State football team last season. With some off the field turmoil that everyone in East Lansing was seemingly impacted by, the Spartans struggled to find success on the field and finished with a disappointing 5-7 overall record.

Michigan State Spartans record vs. Oregon Ducks

These two teams haven’t met many times, but they do have an intriguing history together in the seven matchups they’ve had. Oregon holds a slight 4-3 advantage in the series and the home team tends to come out on top.

Conference: Big Ten

Michigan State was a Big Ten member long before the Oregon Ducks were as the Spartans joined the conference all the way back in 1953. They’ve been a consistent presence in the conference ever since joining one of the most prestigious leagues around. 

Location: East Lansing, Michigan

Michigan State University is found in East Lansing, Michigan and the Michigan State football team competes in Spartan Stadium. For those who don’t know, East Lansing is about a couple hours northwest of Detroit.

Schedule

Schedule