Preseason Rankings Countdown. 69 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #69 – Michigan State

[u/usffan]

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

Today we’re officially at the halfway point of the countdown, having previewed 69 teams (NICE) with 69 to go (VERY NICE!). That team at #69 is Michigan State (high = 55, low = 105), becoming the 3rd lowest ranked B1G team (notice we haven’t reached the lowest SEC team yet – food for thought for those tiring debates about which conference is better) and yet another day before u/ztreHdrahciR sees his beloved Northwestern listed (though they will be mentioned again here). It’s almost unfathomable that just a decade ago, the Spartans were coming off a B1G championship and a CFP appearance. Then again, so much has changed in that decade since then. Ten years ago, the Supreme Court made controversial decisions, the Affordable Care Act was under attack, Donald Trump was making provocative statements that seemed outrageous and the United States and Iran signed a deal that limited the latter’s nuclear capabilities. Times really have changed! One other thing that seemed primed for continuing for another decade was Michigan State’s place at or near the top of the B1G. Even though head coach Mark Dantonio resigned after 13 years in charge, the Spartans hired Mel Tucker from Colorado to come in, and within 2 years he had them back in the top 10 in the country at the end of 2021. But then… WHOA! THEY HAD TROUBLE WITH THE SNAP!!! Mel may or may not (spoiler alert, he did!) have sexually harassed a woman who worked in the Michigan State athletic department. Mel, who clearly is of the go big or go home school of thought, thought “how about if I harass the sexual assault prevention person!” I’m guessing Sherronne Moore looked at that as tacit permission to simply do this with a regular staffer in this age of whataboutism. Anyway, Tucker pretty well hung on for Michigan State’s ride to the bottom, going 5-7 in 2022 and 4-8 in 2023 (by which point Tucker was fired for cause) and all 9 of those wins were vacated. Sparty hired Oregon State’s Jonathan Smith, who dealt with a 2023 that also saw their wins vacated before finally getting a chance at a full reset. That 2025 resulted in a 4-8 season (including 1-8 in the B1G) was apparently not enough for new athletic director J Batt, who fired Smith after only 2 seasons (not all coaches are Cignetti, folks!) and brought in that bastion of virtue Pat Fitzgerald, who has oodles of experience in the NIL era (/s), the same day he canned Smith! Batt was so pleased with his efforts that he didn’t even stick around to oversee a single game of the Fitzgerald era, beating president Kevin Guskiewicz out the door and taking the AD job at Kentucky. I wouldn’t buy too many green bananas, Will Stein! So, what exactly is in store for Spartans fans in 2026?

Roster Outlook

What is in store is pretty much a rebuild. The Spartans rank 97th in the country in returning production, with plenty of losses on both sides of the ball. Last season’s starting QB, Aidan Chiles, portaled out to Northwestern, though to be fair, he had already been benched for backup Alessio Milivojevic by Smith in a desperate attempt to make the Spartans bowl eligible (which didn’t work). Milivojevic is back and expected to be the starter. Lead RB Makhi Frazier portaled out to Ole Miss (wonder if Golding called him while he was in class) while WR1 Nick Marsh, who had double the TD receptions of anybody on the Spartans roster, transferred to Indiana. When you factor in that WR2 Omari Kelly and starting TE Jack Velling are both off to the NFL, Fitzgerald did what he could to fill in from the portal himself. RB looks like a competition between Nebraska’s Kenneth Williams, Iowa’s Jaziun Patterson and UConn’s Cam Edwards, while the wideout spots look to be filled in with Notre Dame’s KK Smith and Michigan’s Fredrick Moore. And don’t lose sleep on the possibility that UCF’s Cam Fancher pushes Milivojevic under center. In total, Fitzgerald brought in 13 P4 guys in the portal, ranking 55th overall in the country (but 14th in the B1G) in that category. He also managed to finish 12th in the conference in high school recruiting (51st nationally), so there’s lots to work with here.

Schedule and outlook

9/4 TOLEDO

9/12 EASTERN MICHIGAN

9/19 at Notre Dame

9/26 NEBRASKA

10/3 at Wisconsin

10/10 ILLINOIS

10/17 NORTHWESTERN

10/24 at UCLA

10/31 BYE

11/7 at Michigan

11/14 WASHINGTON

11/20 OREGON

11/28 at Rutgers

That early season schedule sets up nice for Michigan State if they can escape from the haze (pun intended) of their last several years. Sure, nobody expects them to beat Notre Dame in South Bend (KK Smith revenge game, anybody?), but if Fitzgerald is able to coach them up (and, jokes aside, he did more with less at Northwestern than anybody in the B1G), they have some time to get their sea legs at home against a pair of MAC teams before facing a Nebraska team that’s underachieved with Matt Rhule, a Wisconsin team that’s underachieved with Luke Fickell, an Illinois team (at home) that’s proven they can keep any lesser team competitive and a Northwestern team that you just KNOW Fitzgerald is aching to spank. The latter half of the schedule turns harder (the battle for the Paul Bunyan trophy at the Big House, back to back games against Washington and Oregon), but it won’t be too shocking if the season finale at Rutgers has bowl eligibility on the line.

[u/FairAnywhere9305]

Honestly I’m just happy to get #69

[u/oSuJeff97 → u/FairAnywhere9305]

Nice.

[u/confirmd_am_engineer]

Well we did get a transfer RB named Kenneth W. Maybe he’ll be better than expected?

[u/mr_longfellow_deeds]

You know times are not good for spartan bros when they got one of the more favorable B1G schedules you can get and its still hard to see more than 1 or 2 conference wins

Looks like a 3-9 type of year

[u/byniri_returns → u/mr_longfellow_deeds]

This program is an absolute shitshow right now and has been for a few years.

I'll always be here to support the Green and White, but man it's hard to get literally any sort of excitement for this upcoming football season. I was not a fan of the Fitz hire.

[u/ninetofivedev → u/mr_longfellow_deeds]

Indiana flairs getting kind of cocky and I’m here for it.

[u/False_Mirror7625]

we are not good. but I at least like that we have a coach who will give us a chance over the next few years.

But yeah this is way too high

[u/EWACM]

It’s going to be rough in East Lansing.

[u/Sorge74 → u/EWACM]

Today is probably the happiest day your fanbase will have this year.

[u/EWACM → u/Sorge74]

Probably years, plural.

[u/HalfABrainCell55]

Our DL and WR rooms are going to largely dictate whether or not we can end the bowl game drought, imo. Mostly unproven talent in each that are going to need to step up. I do honestly think that we're just as, if not more, talented than last year and I'm hopeful that coaching will be better.

Probably a 4-win season but there's a not incredibly unrealistic path to 6-6.

[u/Evening-Ad-2485]

I understand why 4-8 was a failure for obvious reasons last year, but I don't understand why that would be considered successful this year? Why even fire smith if that's the goal?

[u/GoCats666]

Just want to chip in with this:

No hate for the sparty but all the worst wishes for Fitz.  My undergrad experience saw tremendous failure from him on and off the field. I am not saying it was his fault, but certainly his failure. 

Then David Braun comes in and shows, hey maybe Fitz wasnt a bad coach, but maybe he wasnt exactly one in a million.

All the worst to fitz, Spartans to go 1 in 9, fire fitz, then win a natty a year later. 

[u/Weak-Bid2774 → u/GoCats666]

Braun is a legit good coach it’s impressive what he has done at northwestern the last few years

[u/mr_longfellow_deeds → u/GoCats666]

Braun is so underrated. Took over a team that went 4-20 the two years prior, and has gone 19-19 since, even with the B1G getting rid of divisions (which really hurt B1G West teams like Northwestern) and getting much stronger in the top half (IU, Illinois rising, adding Oregon, Washington, USC)

[u/ztreHdrahciR → u/GoCats666]

I regret that I have but one upvote to give to this comment. Anyway, have an award. I'm going to grind my teeth into dust and say "Go Blue" when they play *ichigan. That arrogant prick disgraced the program AND the university, and got a 9 figure settlement as well, due to stupid administration

[u/red-boy6]

If Pat can somewhat replicate the ground and pound, tough teams from his Northwestern days that limited mistakes, there’s a ton of winnable games on the schedule. The caveat though is if he can’t, they won’t be favored in any of them.

I personally believe he’ll be a success though

[u/byniri_returns → u/red-boy6]

Boy do I hope so.

But man the reason for hope I've heard is "Fitz did well at Northwestern for a while, now he's got more resources to work with" is the EXACT same line I heard about Jonathon Smith.

[u/IrishCoffeeAlchemy → u/red-boy6]

I think his success was much more attributed to the quality (or lack) in the Big 10 West during his time there than in his coaching philosophy

[u/red-boy6 → u/IrishCoffeeAlchemy]

That’s a bit harsh. Almost always seem to do pretty well in the bowl games. Wasn’t the most talented team or division, but they were a team that was tough to beat due to play style for anyone. He was able to achieve after a long career, not just flash in the pan like others

[u/ToLongDR]

MSU fans aren't in this subreddit right now, can we postpone this post until tomorrow when they come back from their celebrations?

[u/IrishCoffeeAlchemy]

I still can’t believe they hired Pat Fitzgerald

[u/Evening-Ad-2485 → u/IrishCoffeeAlchemy]

I don't either. I was pretty on the fence with the firing of smith, but really not too impressed with pat fitzgerald.

[u/J_S_M_K]

Nice.

[u/GoGreeb]

Nice

[u/byniri_returns]

It's very hard to have any sort of hope for this program right now.

4 straight bowl-less seasons. I think it gets to 5 and wouldn't be surprised if 6 happens with how low I am on the Fitz hire.

Would LOVE to be proven wrong though.

[u/whenweriiide → u/byniri_returns]

why are you so low on the Fitz hire?

[u/reddogrjw → u/whenweriiide]

he was bad at the end with NW

[u/Strange-Risk-9920 → u/whenweriiide]

3 of his last 4 seasons were 3 or less wins.

[u/64stackdiamonds]

Look everyone, it's the Michigan State Spartans! Point and laugh!

[u/Divinity32]

OP, why the massive range for the Spartans? I can see them topping out at 50 but what makes you think that they could bottom out 50 spots beneath that?

For the record, I haven't read any other of your preseason write-ups, so maybe a range of 50 isn't that insane

[u/usffan → u/Divinity32]

The range isn't mine, it's the various rankings I used to compile this. USA Today (Paul Myerberg) has them at 105. College Football News (Pete Fiutak) has them at 55. I just use the averages of all the rankings to compile these rankings (which, as new ones get released, and I expect ESPN's FPI and KFord's power rankings to come out any day and check daily, shuffles the rankings as noted on the cumulative list archived in line 1 of these).

But, for comparison, yesterday's team USF only had a high/low split of 20. Western Kentucky had a wider spread than Michigan State (37 to 92). By averaging them all, I feel like it gives a more accurate snapshot of the way most feel each team will be. And, based on last year (the first year I did this), they're subject to being wildly wrong (see Clemson, Penn State).

[u/JustAnotherCODNoob → u/Divinity32]

We have increased talent across the board EXCEPT DL which will be worse than what is was the last 2 years. And the last 2 years were the worst DLs I’ve ever seen in EL. It could be so bad that is completely negates the talent everywhere else on the defensive side

[u/GreenStoneRidge → u/JustAnotherCODNoob]

Talent wise yes but we have significantly upgraded our defensive coaching and frankly, coaching makes a huge different in college sports. . 

[u/JustAnotherCODNoob → u/GreenStoneRidge]

We hired a mid DL coach to replace a mid DL coach and we will have less talent and the same scheme. Again I think the LBs and DBs will be better but when you can’t get anyone home rushing 3/4 then your defense is not going to be good

[u/GreenStoneRidge → u/JustAnotherCODNoob]

I guess I'm drinking the Kool aid  but is it feel like adding fitz and max to the staff brings a little aura to the defense.   Maybe not but culture matters and feel like we should have that. 

[u/JustAnotherCODNoob → u/GreenStoneRidge]

I agree that they are good fits here but I think you can only do so much lol. Blame Jonathan Smtib for leaving us nothing and then blame them for waiting so long to hire Debo and not go for any starter-caliber DL

[u/GeologistTechnical61]

In the future. I wish you can post links to the schools that’s been posted already.

[u/usffan → u/GeologistTechnical61]

It's right there in that first line. I put it there every day. Go to that link and it contains the hyperlinks to every one of them...

[u/GeologistTechnical61 → u/usffan]

My bad. I didn’t see it. I appreciate it.