Michigan State’s West Coast trip to UCLA now has a kickoff time and a television home.
The Big Ten and the school announced Monday that the Spartans’ game against the 12th-ranked Bruins at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena will kick off at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET, which is 12:30 p.m. local time, and air on CBS.
MSU enters the matchup at 2-5 after a loss to No. 25 Northwestern. UCLA is 6-0 after beating Wisconsin on Saturday.
This will be the eighth all-time meeting between Michigan State and UCLA and only the second since the Bruins joined the Big Ten. UCLA leads the series 4-3 and has taken the last four, a streak that dates back to the 1966 Rose Bowl.
That Rose Bowl game is one of three times the schools have met in college football’s marquee bowl. The Spartans also beat UCLA in East Lansing during the 1965 season opener, a game that remains Michigan State’s last victory in the series. The other two meetings came in 1954 and 1956, with MSU winning both.
The teams last played just a year ago, when UCLA rolled to a 38-13 win in East Lansing on Michigan State’s homecoming. That game was the real beginning of the end for the short-lived Jonathan Smith era at Michigan State.
MSU’s only other regular-season trip to Los Angeles or Pasadena for a game against UCLA came in 1974, when the Spartans fell 56-14. More recently, Michigan State’s West Coast trips since the Big Ten expanded two seasons ago have also gone poorly, with losses at Oregon in 2024 and at USC in 2025.
The game also matches up two first-year head coaches, but the seasons have gone in opposite directions. Michigan State is 2-5 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten play under Pat Fitzgerald. UCLA is 6-0 overall and 4-0 in conference action in Bob Chesney’s first season.
Chesney arrived from James Madison, where he replaced Curt Cignetti. Even after Cignetti took nearly all of JMU’s top players to Indiana, Chesney kept the Dukes rolling. They finished 9-4 in 2024, then went 12-1 last season before falling to fifth-seeded Oregon in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
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Michigan State Still Has One Frustrating Problem It Cannot Escape
Michigan States latest outing offered a little bit of everything the Spartans have been trying to build around, from encouraging snaps by Jaziun Patterson and Ben Roberts to a defense that kept competing despite being down several starters. There were signs of fight on both sides of the ball, and for stretches the group looked capable of hanging around even while dealing with the kind of roster strain that has been part of the seasons backdrop.
Still, the same frustrating issues kept surfacing. Penalties wiped away momentum, missed chances on special teams mattered, and Alessios struggles only added to the sense that too many small mistakes are stacking up on a program already searching for stability. The effort was there, but Michigan State keeps running into the same problems at the worst possible moments, and until those cleaner details show up, the broader picture remains tough to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Showed Real Progress But One Problem Still Haunts Them
Michigan States trip to Northwestern offered a little of everything Graham Couch has come to look for when grading a performance: signs of progress, stretches of control and enough slippage to keep the review from feeling overly rosy. The offense moved better through the air and on the ground, the defense made life difficult for Northwestern and special teams even supplied some big moments, giving the Spartans a case that the operation is getting cleaner on multiple fronts.
Still, the lingering issue is the one that tends to decide close Big Ten games. Michigan State gave the ball away, left some chances on the field and eventually had a late special teams breakdown that overshadowed much of the good work that came before it. Even with the coaching staff drawing credit for its adjustments and overall plan, there were late-game decisions that invited second-guessing, which is what makes this one feel like progress with a stubborn reminder attached. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Wasted A Defensive Effort In Another Brutal Finish
Michigan State had enough defensive resistance to put itself in position to win, and Ben Roberts was at the center of it. The Spartans linebacker turned in a disruptive afternoon with eight tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks, helping keep Northwestern from comfortably controlling the game as the finish tightened.
Aidan Chiles and Northwestern still found a way to survive the rush, though, as the Wildcats pieced together the final drive under pressure from Michigan States defense. The ending turned cruel in an instant when a blocked field goal opened the door for Northwesterns game-winning kick with two seconds left, leaving the Spartans to digest another close loss that felt very much there for the taking. [Read more 🡒]