Pat Fitzgerald Faces Favorable Schedule in First Season

In football, there’s one rule. It doesn’t involve not talking about Fight Club, but instead, it’s that you play the teams on your schedule.

In college football, it’s a little different, as teams agree to play each other through the non-conference schedule. Still, the conference opponents you must play are not hand-picked. Thus, you can only control what you can control.

For Pat Fitzgerald and the Michigan State Spartans, the schedule favors the Green and White in a season where it seems like nothing else will.

Fitzgerald has been tasked with turning a program stuck in the mud into a shiny, winning toy that is feared by all.

Taking over a team that has won more than five games just once in the last six seasons is no easy feat. Add in the whirlwind of losing more than 40 players to the transfer portal, and the job seems nearly impossible.

However, one thing seems to have fallen in favor of Michigan State this year. When all seemed lost, the schedule may have turned out to be a nice bonus.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Michigan State has two games against Top-5 teams in the country, a home matchup against No. 2 Oregon and a road game against No. 4 Notre Dame. That is absolutely brutal. However, with the Big Ten holding both the No. 1 team, Ohio State, and the No. 2 team, Oregon, it could be worse.

The Spartans are avoiding five Big Ten teams ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, including No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Indiana, No. 15 USC, No. 18 Penn State and No. 22 Iowa. In fact, the Spartans only play three ranked Big Ten teams: No. 2 Oregon, No. 16 Michigan and No. 17 Washington.

Add in Notre Dame, and the Spartans' four ranked opponents in the preseason Top 25 are among the lowest totals in the Big Ten.

The only Big Ten teams playing fewer preseason Top 25 opponents are Illinois, Maryland, Iowa, Penn State and UCLA, which will each play just three.

Then there's Michigan State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oregon and Rutgers who will play four teams ranked in the preseason Top 25.

Six Big Ten teams — Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Washington, USC and Purdue — will play five teams ranked in the Top 25.

Then there is Michigan and Ohio State, which are set to face six teams ranked in the Top 25.

It’s going to be a wild ride in the Big Ten this season, and the Spartans are getting no love or belief from just about any outside observer. That’s a fair conclusion given the program’s recent history, but with a schedule that may be more favorable than expected, the Spartans might be bound to make some unruly noise in the Big Ten.