Two of Notre Dame’s future football schedules will have a vintage feel to them, as the school announced the return of a home-and-home with Michigan State in the 2026-27 seasons.
Notre Dame will host Michigan State on Sept. 19, 2026. The Irish will visit Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Sept. 18, 2027. The programs have met 79 times dating back to 1887 but have not faced each other since Notre Dame’s 38-18 win in East Lansing in 2017.
📆 Schedule update 📆
The Megaphone Trophy rivalry is back in 2026 and 2027
🔗https://t.co/Q9EaYZ93Onpic.twitter.com/dkQlqhYKk3
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) June 27, 2024
What does this mean for Notre Dame?
With the Irish slated to play Purdue this fall, the Michigan State series will add some historical familiarity to Notre Dame schedules that have lacked much of it since the beginning of a scheduling agreement with the ACC. Notre Dame has not played Michigan since a home-and-home in 2018-19 and is not scheduled to resume the series until the 2030s. The Purdue series, played annually from 1946-2014, has been played just once since, a 27-13 Notre Dame win during Brian Kelly’s final season.
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New Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua has identified scheduling as a potential headache in the new College Football Playoff era as the Big Ten and SEC expand, collectively adding USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Oklahoma. However, adding Michigan State for a home-and-home is a sign Notre Dame can make the new math work, even with the Big Ten playing a nine-game conference schedule.
How much the CFP committee takes strength of schedule into account remains to be seen — will the middle of the schedule matter more now that more than four teams make the field? — in the changing postseason.
Notre Dame’s scheduling of Michigan State is also good business for NBC. The network not only re-signed Notre Dame on a media rights deal believed to pay out comparably to the Big Ten and SEC, but it’s entering the second year of its contact with the Big Ten. While Michigan State’s visit to Notre Dame will air on NBC, just like every time the Spartans visited since 1991, Notre Dame’s trip to East Lansing will also create potential inventory for the network, which divides league home games with Fox and CBS.
Former athletic director Jack Swarbrick cautioned that Notre Dame adding Big Ten teams to future schedule wouldn’t automatically happen for the sake of NBC’s inventory, but there’s not doubt that Notre Dame playing at Big Ten venues is good for the conference and the network.
Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule now includes four games against Big Ten opponents: Michigan State, at Purdue, Wisconsin (at Lambeau Field) and at USC. — Pete Sampson, Notre Dame beat writer
Impact on Michigan State
Michigan State fans should be ecstatic to see this game come back.
Michigan State and Notre Dame share a long history, and it was Notre Dame’s willingness to play MSU for years that helped the Spartans eventually get into the Big Ten. The teams have played many memorable games over the year, and the 2026 matchup will be the 60th anniversary of the 1966 Game of the Century, when the top two-ranked schools tied 10-10 in East Lansing.
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At a time when some rivalries are disappearing and the Big Ten is adding schools from the West Coast to the conference schedule, it’s nice to see a regional rivalry like this make a comeback, even if briefly. It’s a big boost to nonconference schedules for Michigan State, as Boston College (2024-25) and BYU (2032) are the only other Power 4 opponents on future schedules thus far. — Chris Vannini, national college football writer
Required reading
- Why hasn’t Notre Dame joined a conference? Former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany weighs in
- Notre Dame survey: How confident are fans in Marcus Freeman? What if Irish win a title?
(Photo: Leon Halip / Getty Images)