The Notre Dame-Michigan State rivalry is back on the schedule, and the Megaphone Trophy is back in play.
After nine years without meeting on the field, the Fighting Irish and Spartans will square off Saturday night on NBC in the 80th meeting between the programs. Their first game came in 1897, and they’ve now played 79 times before this one. What used to be a regular part of the college football calendar got pushed aside by conference expansion and realignment, but the schools agreed to a two-game, home-and-home series on June 27, 2024.
There’s plenty of history wrapped into this one, but the game should also carry the kind of edge that has always defined this matchup. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman wants his team playing with “violence,” while Michigan State coach Pat Fitzgerald leans on a “blue-collar” approach.
That shared mindset starts with the sideline. Both men were All-Big Ten linebackers in their playing days, and both preach energy, physicality, and winning the battles that happen all over the defense.
That tone fits a trophy game. The Megaphone Trophy, introduced in 1949 by the Detroit-based alumni clubs of both schools, goes to the winner.
It’s the kind of prize players want to grab hold of, especially when chances to play for it have been so rare. Michigan State has a chance to take a piece of rivalry history back to East Lansing.
Notre Dame gets the chance to keep the Megaphone in South Bend.
Even with all that nostalgia in the air, this doesn’t look like a night that will call to mind the 1966 “Game of the Century,” when No. 1 Notre Dame and No.
2 Michigan State played to a 10-10 tie. This meeting figures to tilt much more heavily toward the Irish.
Both teams are 2-0, but Notre Dame is No. 3 in the AP Poll and carrying national championship hopes. Michigan State is unranked and still early in the Fitzgerald era. The betting line tells the same story, with BetMGM listing Notre Dame as a 29.5-point favorite.
So the pageantry will be there, and the trophy will be on the line. But when the night is over, Notre Dame is expected to send Michigan State home without the Megaphone.
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