Michigan State football will play at least four primetime games this season, including the first ever night game against Michigan at Spartan Stadium.
The Spartans will host the Wolverines for a 7:30 kickoff Oct. 21 on NBC, per college football insider Brett McMurphy, the first time the longtime rivals will meet under the lights in East Lansing.
Asked Wednesday about the possibility of a night game against Michigan this season, MSU's Mel Tucker said at Big Ten media days, "Is that concrete? It is? Yep. We'll be there."
The two teams also played at night last season at Michigan Stadium, where a postgame fight in the tunnel to the locker rooms became the main story out of the Wolverines' 29-7 win. It resulted in eight Michigan State players getting suspended, seven of whom were also criminally charged. Asked if the rivalry needs to tone things down, Tucker said, "I don’t know how you do that."
"There’s not a day that’s gone by that I haven’t heard something about that game," he said. "I mean, every day of my life, I hear about that game. So I don’t know how you rein that in.”
Tucker, who's 2-1 against Jim Harbaugh and Michigan as head coach of the Spartans, also said the storied rivalry is "what's great about college football."
"Cleveland-Pittsburgh, Chicago-Green Bay, Alabama-Auburn, Georgia-Florida, Colorado-Nebraska, those are big games," he said. "I mean, that's why that's why we coach, that's why we play, to be in those games and to ultimately win those games. And oftentimes, you're judged by how you do in those games. I think it's great.
"From the day I got here in my initial press conference, I'm not stepping away, I'm not shying away from the from the challenge of the rivalry. It’s the biggest game of the year for us. And it's always gonna be like that as long as I'm the coach here."
The Spartans, coming off a 5-7 campaign a year after going 11-2, will also play night games this season against Central Michigan on Sept. 1 (7:00, FS1), at Ohio State on Nov. 11 (7:30, NBC) and against Penn State on Nov. 24 at Ford Field (7:30, NBC). They'll also host Washington for a 5:00 kickoff Sept. 16 on Peacock.
The Wolverines are slated to host two night games, Sept 16 against Bowling Green (7:30, Big Ten Network) and, per the report, Nov. 4 against Purdue (7:30, NBC). It's the debut season on NBC for Big Ten football.
Listen live to 97.1 The Ticket via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker