MSU Football Schedule: Notre Dame kickoff time set for 2026, future series with Oklahoma State and Cincinnati announced

As the Pat Fitzgerald era of Michigan State football is just getting off the ground, the Spartans’ future non-conference schedule is starting to take shape. The latest additions to the schedule signal a noticeable effort to play nationally recognizable opponents, and include road tests both within and outside the Midwest.

On Thursday, Michigan State football announced future home-and-home series with the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cincinnati Bearcats, while also adding the Duquesne Dukes (FCS) to its 2027 schedule.

The Spartans also finalized kickoff details for their marquee 2026 matchup against Notre Dame.

The Spartans and Fighting Irish will meet in primetime on Sept. 19 in South Bend, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on NBC and Peacock. The rivalry remains one of college football’s most historic, with the programs meeting 79 times dating back to 1897. The 2026 season also marks the 60th anniversary of the famed 10-10 “Game of the Century” tie between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Michigan State in 1966.

More recently, the rivalry has produced road victories for both programs, including Michigan State’s 36-28 win in South Bend in 2016 and Notre Dame’s 38-18 win in East Lansing in 2017. However, the 2017 matchup was the last time these two programs met.

With the schools scheduled to meet this coming fall and then again in East Lansing in 2027, the rivalry appears positioned to regain some of the consistency and national relevance that defined it for decades. Notre Dame leads Michigan State in the all-time series by a tally of 49-29-1.

MSU will travel to Stillwater on Sept. 16, 2028, for the first meeting in program history against Oklahoma State. The Spartans return the favor by hosting the Cowboys in East Lansing on Sept. 15, 2029.

Michigan State will then begin a two-year series with Cincinnati, traveling to Nippert Stadium on Sept. 14, 2030, before welcoming the Bearcats to Spartan Stadium in 2031.

For a Michigan State program attempting to re-establish itself nationally under Fitzgerald, the scheduling philosophy is notable. Rather than filling future non-conference slates exclusively with regional Group of Five or FCS opponents, the Spartans are adding games against current Big 12 programs with recent histories of national relevance, while also renewing the rivalry going against Notre Dame in 2026 and 2027.

Oklahoma State, in particular, presents one of the more intriguing additions. The Cowboys have long been one of the Big 12’s more stable programs, producing multiple double-digit win seasons under longtime head coach Mike Gundy. However, Gundy was fired early during the 2025 season, and the Cowboys have won just four combined games during the 2024 and 2025 seasons combined. Eric Morris takes over as head coach of the Cowboys in 2026.

While the two schools have never met on the football field, the matchup carries some stylistic intrigue. Oklahoma State has traditionally leaned into explosive offenses and high-tempo play, while Fitzgerald’s reputation was built around physical line play and offensive efficiency during his tenure at Northwestern.

The road trip to Stillwater could also become one of the more challenging non-conference environments Michigan State has played in recent years. Boone Pickens Stadium has consistently been viewed as one of the tougher venues in the Big 12, particularly for teams unfamiliar with the setting.

The Cincinnati series offers a different type of intrigue.

Although the programs have technically met twice before, the last matchup came in 1946 — nearly 85 years before the scheduled 2030 meeting. Michigan State won the first game 32-0 in 1930 before Cincinnati answered with an 18-7 victory in East Lansing 16 years later.

At the time those games were played, neither program remotely resembled what they are today. Cincinnati has since emerged as one of the more successful Group of Five-to-Power Conference success stories in college football. The Bearcats reached the College Football Playoff during the 2021 season under Luke Fickell before later transitioning into the Big 12.

For Michigan State, the Cincinnati series also continues a growing trend of building a relevant presence in Ohio. A trip to Cincinnati places the Spartans in another talent-rich region that has historically produced Big Ten-caliber recruits for MSU.

The addition of Duquesne in 2027 is more straightforward, giving Michigan State a traditional FCS matchup to balance a difficult schedule that already includes non-conference games against Notre Dame and the Central Michigan Chippewas.

That 2027 slate could quietly become one of the tougher schedules Michigan State has faced in years. In addition to Notre Dame, the Spartans are scheduled to host Michigan and Wisconsin, while traveling to Ohio State, Penn State and Washington in Big Ten play.

The broader scheduling outlook also reflects the realities of the expanded Big Ten Conference. With the additions of USC, Oregon, Washington and UCLA, conference schedules have already become significantly more difficult week-to-week. Programs across the league have responded differently, some softening future non-conference schedules, others continuing to pursue marquee matchups.

Michigan State appears to be trying to strike a middle ground.

The Spartans are still maintaining annual in-state games against Central Michigan and Western Michigan, but the additions of Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and at BYU (2032) show a willingness to test themselves against recognizable national brands.

Whether that approach ultimately helps Michigan State in the expanded playoff era remains to be seen, but it does create future schedules that should generate significantly more interest among fans than the traditional buy-game model.