OT: Sparty schedules 3 games vs. Boise State: 2012, 2022, 2023

Submitted by Communist Football on

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State Athletics Director Mark Hollis announced Friday, Oct. 29 that the Spartans have signed contracts for a three-game series with Boise State. The Spartans will kick off the series with Boise State on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012, in East Lansing, Mich. The 2012 season and home opener will be televised nationally by ESPN.

Michigan State's 2012 seven-game home schedule features Boise State, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern.

The second contract is for a home-and-home series, beginning Sept. 17, 2022, in the 33,500-seat Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho. The Broncos will make the return trip to Spartan Stadium on Sept. 16, 2023.

"We're extremely excited about this special opportunity to kick off the 2012 season with a nationally televised game against Boise State, the nation's winningest football program since 1997 (140-31, .819)," Hollis said. "As we try an innovative concept with a Friday night Labor Day weekend game, we couldn't pull something like this off without campus-wide cooperation.

"Since Michigan (K-12) schools don't begin fall classes until after Labor Day, high school teams will play their football games on Thursday that week, making this is a great way for our fans to kickoff the holiday weekend. By scheduling the Boise State game on a Friday night, it's also our hope that the tourism industry will receive a positive bump since most fans will now have the opportunity to make plans to enjoy the entire Labor Day weekend."

Michigan State has compiled a 6-2 record (.750) against current members of the Western Athletic Conference (1-0 vs. Fresno State, 4-1 vs. Hawaii, 1-0 vs. Idaho and 0-1 vs. Louisiana Tech).

In the last 18 months, Michigan State has announced home-and-home series with West Virginia (2014-15), Alabama (2016-17) and Miami-Fla. (2020-21) as well as the extension of its series with Notre Dame through the 2031 season, with two-year breaks in 2014-15, 2020-21 and 2026-27.

"With teams like Boise State, West Virginia, Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame on our future schedules, our fans can look forward to a lot of special game days in Spartan Stadium, as we continue to bring the top programs in college football to our state," Hollis said.

CrankThatDonovan

October 29th, 2010 at 4:38 PM ^

I know, but those games are not scheduled until 2016-17.  If Michigan State is truly going to break out, they need nationally relevent games now, not in six years.  I find it convenient that this game happens to be on a Friday night, the day before the Michigan-Alabama game.  Just my opinion.

joeyb

October 29th, 2010 at 4:35 PM ^

In the last 18 months, Michigan State has announced home-and-home series with West Virginia (2014-15), Alabama (2016-17) and Miami-Fla. (2020-21) as well as the extension of its series with Notre Dame through the 2031 season, with two-year breaks in 2014-15, 2020-21 and 2026-27.

Did you even read what was posted?

COB

October 29th, 2010 at 5:04 PM ^

I think you just sounded egocentric and misinformed.  Nothing personal.  MSU scheduled Alabama prior to Michigan doing the same and now they now took a game very few programs would.  Saying they did it to "keep up" with Michigan doesn't make any sense.  Maybe Michigan scheduled Bama to keep up with MSU scheduling...Bama. 

cadmus2166

October 29th, 2010 at 4:25 PM ^

should be breaking in new QB's for the 2012 game.....could end up being a snoozer!  But I do give some props to MSU for scheduling this series.  Granted, it's not Alabama, but still good to see tougher nonconference games get scheduled.

icefins26

October 29th, 2010 at 4:26 PM ^

"With teams like Boise State, West Virginia, Alabama, Miami and Notre Dame on our future schedules, our fans can look forward to a lot of special game days in Spartan Stadium, as we continue to bring the top programs in college football to our state," Hollis said.

I love how he cites ND as if it's something new.

bronxblue

October 29th, 2010 at 4:26 PM ^

A nice home schedule, and I give them credit.  I  expect them to be worked over by a couple of those teams, but I give them credit for taking on a legit opponent.

Seth

October 29th, 2010 at 4:30 PM ^

This is an interesting way to get around the scheduling conflict.

I have a feeling this was organized in bad faith on MSU's part. The hangup on scheduling Boise was that their AD wants a return visit. He traded 2-for-1 here, but the key is in 10 years, that AD is probably not going to be around, and the chances are Boise St is not going to be more than a good mid-major team. I'm willing to put odds right now that the 2022 game gets miraculously moved for some dumbass reason (construction, most likely) to an NFL location, and 60-40 that NFL location is Ford Field.

PhillipFulmersPants

October 29th, 2010 at 5:37 PM ^

MSU thinks the 10-year window will give ample opportunity for a poor pay-out and potentially really tough road game to dissolve, to me, that's not so much bad faith but a pretty good hedge of bets by MSU's AD.  I guess I don't think there was the treachery and dishonesty here that bad faith implies. Both ADs know how the system works. 

To me, this deal speaks volumes about how much bargaining power BSU has--little to none. I feel somewhat bad for them because no one's going to respect them until they play in a BCS conference or play BSC conference-like schedule ala Notre Dame, and that's not likely to happen anytime soon unless they just agree to go play the big boys on the road all the time and forget about the return game.

Anyway, like others have said, props to MSU for going out and getting some good games for their fans to watch.

BlueTimesTwo

October 30th, 2010 at 12:14 AM ^

I agree that the 2022 game is basically a throw-away at this point, but I am not so certain that BSU will not have advanced a lot further in the next decade than MSU.

There have been periods in the past in which MSU has fielded some pretty good teams, but they have not made the leap to perennial contender.  There is no reason to expect this to be the time for them to make that leap.

BSU, on the other hand, has been moving up in divisions and has continued to steadily advance the program.  They are currently making plans to expand their 35K stadium to something around 50-60K, and there could be more by 2022.  Considering how successful they have been so far despite their lack of funds and facilities, they have an opportunity to go from flash-in-the-pan BCS-buster to legitimate program with some staying power.  They may not end up on par with Michigan or Alabama, but they have the program moving in the right direction.  With all of the conference realignments going on, and the potential for a playoff in the future, who knows where a program like BSU will be in 12 years?

steelymax

October 29th, 2010 at 4:42 PM ^

By my count (consistent with the Dantonio regime, so far), Sparty will have rescinded their zero tolerance policy 4 times by 2012 and 14 & 15 times by '22 & '23.

dvlfnfv5

October 29th, 2010 at 4:48 PM ^

The kids who are gonna play in the 2022 game are 6-7-8 year olds. We need to start recruiting the DPS elementary schools to make sure MSU doesn't get any of that in-state talent!

chickenbroccolibake

October 29th, 2010 at 4:53 PM ^

They added an interesting and competitive team to their schedule.  That's a good thing.

I don't know why everybody wants to hate on State for this, especially while D'Antonio is currently demonstrating his patented "Zero Tolerance Policy" as a means of effectively molding young men into upstanding individuals.

I'm all for hating on State.  But for scheduling Boise State?  Relax people.

Tater

October 29th, 2010 at 5:12 PM ^

I think it would be really funny if they upgraded their schedules like this every year and then turned out to be Same Old Sparty.  Scheduling teams like this works if you are an elite program, but it can really backfire if you are just a perennial pretender.

Yostal

October 29th, 2010 at 5:34 PM ^

Think about Labor Day weekend 2012 for college football:

Friday night: Michigan State vs. Boise State

Saturday afternoon: Notre Dame vs. Navy in Dublin

Saturday night: Michigan vs. Alabama in Dallas

Saturday night: Tennessee vs. NC State in Atlanta

Monday?: Clemson vs. Auburn in Atlanta

There's going to be a lot of fun games to open that season, just from what we know about.  That's good for college football fans, period.

 

Yostal

October 29th, 2010 at 9:20 PM ^

There is nothing wrong with being excited for College Football Christmas, even if it's two years away.

The Notre Dame/Navy game intrigues me, if only because it's in Dublin.  I'm intensely curious about that.

BornInAA

October 29th, 2010 at 6:44 PM ^

on Smurf Turf?

Yuk. See: bottom of a trashcan after a Sparty fan bender.

Only thing worse is OSU "Scarlet" (in any setting) that is really stop-sign obnoxious day-go red.

jamiemac

October 29th, 2010 at 7:10 PM ^

Well, as somebody who has consistently said, going back to the Haloscan days, that Boise could more than compete in the Big 10, I cant wait for the first real proof to roll in.

Go Boise!