The Michigan State Spartans hosted a top-10 Northwestern Wildcats squad (No. 8 in the CFP rankings at the time) in Spartan Stadium last season and sent NU packing with the Wildcats’ sole regular season loss. Northwestern will hope to return the favor in the season opener for both teams on Friday night on its own home turf this time. However, MSU has won six of the last seven games at Ryan Field.
All-time, Friday’s matchup marks the 60th meeting of the two Big Ten programs, and it also marks the first time since 1982 that the Spartans open the season against a Big Ten opponent.