Michigan State’s season opener arrives Friday night, and the Spartans will get their first chance to show what this rebuilt roster looks like under Pat Fitzgerald.
The Spartans host Toledo at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, with kickoff set for 8 p.m. ET. The game will air on FS1, and streaming will be available on Fox One and Fubo.
Fitzgerald is set for his first game in green and white after Michigan State moved on from Jonathan Smith following a 4-8 season in 2025. The new coach inherits a team trying to reach its first bowl game since Mel Tucker guided an 11-2 Spartans squad to the Peach Bowl in 2021.
Michigan State’s roster has been heavily reshaped, with 32 transfers joining the program between Smith’s 2025 team and Fitzgerald’s 2026 version. Even with all that turnover, one familiar face remains under center: Alessio Milivojevic. He started the final four games of 2025 and has been named one of six Spartans captains for 2026.
Toledo brings its own intrigue into the opener. The Rockets are coming off a season in which they finished tied for second in the MAC in 2026, and while they don’t come from a Power 4 conference, they’re not being treated like an easy warm-up. Mike Jacobs will coach his first game for Toledo after Jason Candle, who led the program from 2016-25, departed for UConn.
The Spartans are favored, and this is the kind of game they’ll want to handle if they plan to get to bowl eligibility by season’s end.
Michigan State vs. Toledo
Date: Friday, Sept. 4
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Spartan Stadium, East Lansing
Channel: FS1
Streaming: Fox One, Fubo
Michigan State 2026 schedule
Week 1: vs Toledo, Friday, Sept. 4 (8 p.m. ET, FS1)
Week 2: vs Eastern Michigan, Saturday, Sept. 12 (3:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network)
Week 3: at Notre Dame, Saturday, Sept. 19 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)
Week 4: vs Nebraska, Saturday, Sept. 26 (time and TV TBA)
Week 5: at Wisconsin, Saturday, Oct. 3 (time and TV TBA)
Week 6: vs Illinois, Saturday, Oct. 10 (time and TV TBA)
Week 7: vs Northwestern, Saturday, Oct. 17 (time and TV TBA)
Week 8: at UCLA, Saturday, Oct. 24 (time and TV TBA)
Week 9: BYE
Week 10: at Michigan, Saturday, Nov. 7 (time and TV TBA)
Week 11: vs Washington, Saturday, Nov. 14 (time and TV TBA)
Week 12: vs Oregon, Friday, Nov. 20 (8 p.m. ET, Fox)
Week 13: at Rutgers, Saturday, Nov. 28 (time and TV TBA)
In Other News...
Michigan Just Gave Michigan State Fans A Reason To Believe
Michigans narrow win over Western Michigan did more than add another result to the rivalry ledger. It also left Michigan State fans watching a game that felt shaky long before the final horn, then even shakier when officials put one second back on the clock after a last snap that appeared to have expired. The sequence had plenty of people talking, especially with the clock showing zero while the ball was still in the air.
For Spartans fans, the bigger takeaway was not the controversy itself but the way it framed the rest of Michigans season. A team that had to survive that kind of afternoon now heads toward the Michigan State matchup with fresh questions about how secure it really is, and whether the Wolverines are as steady as they looked on paper. Michigans celebration was loud, but it also gave its in-state rival a little extra reason to believe. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Fans Just Got A Painful Reminder Of What Left
The receiver room that Michigan State had to rebuild after its coaching change just got a little more familiar with the pain of seeing talent walk out the door. Marsh, who played for the Spartans in 2024 and 2025, is now at Indiana, and his move fits into a broader offseason that has quietly reshaped the Hoosiers roster on offense as they keep adding proven pieces around a new core.
Indiana has not stopped there, either, stacking its transfer haul with quarterback Josh Hoover from TCU, running back Turbo Richard from Boston College and guard Joe Brunner from Wisconsin. For Michigan State fans, Marshs departure is a reminder that roster turnover is not just about who arrives in East Lansing, but also about which productive players end up helping someone else sooner than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Won But Spartans Fans Have Plenty To Argue About
Michigan State opened the season with a 30-20 win over Toledo, and the Spartans had just enough offense to survive an afternoon that still left plenty for the film room. Alessio Milivojevic was efficient in his first start, completing 26 of 34 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown, while Cam Edwards added 98 yards and a score to help steady the attack.
Even with the victory in hand, the bigger conversation around the program is what the opener revealed about the rough edges. Pass protection wavered at times and red zone execution did not always match the yardage the Spartans were stacking up, which is why a comfortable final margin still came with a side of frustration. For a team trying to build momentum early, the win was the important part, but the details were hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]