Michigan State basketball: What do we know about next year’s schedule?

The 2023-24 Michigan State basketball season is in the books. What do we know about the Spartans’ 2024-25 schedule?

It’s that time of the year that us fans have nothing to look forward to other than next season. The off-season for Michigan State basketball can be an exciting time, but it can also be pretty dull as well. So sometimes all we can do is sit in our offices or at home day dreaming about the next season.

With next season in mind, let’s take a look at the Spartan’s schedule and what we know about it already.

Non-conference opponents

Typically we have no clue who the Spartans’ non-conference opponents will be at this point. That isn’t the case this year.

The first big event MSU fans always know about is the Champions Classic. This event will continue again next season, and MSU’s opponent will be Kansas. The Champions Classic is always exciting regardless of who Michigan State plays, and I would assume next season won’t be any different.

We also already know what non-conference tournament the Spartans will participate in, and it’s the biggest of the year. The Spartans will be featured in the Maui Invitational around Thanksgiving. The bracket has not been released yet, but the other seven teams in the tournament are UConn, North Carolina, Iowa State, Colorado, Memphis, Auburn, and Dayton.

Lastly are two games that aren’t official yet, but likely will be on the schedule. The Spartans play Oakland almost every season and I don’t see that stopping next year. That will be a bigger game than normal next season after Oakland took down 3-seed Kentucky in this year’s NCAA Tournament. There’s also a chance (pure speculation) Baylor could be on the schedule again as well. Since this year’s game was in Detroit, I could see a return trip to a neutral site in Texas occurring.

Big Ten schedule

It will still be quite some time before the Big Ten conference schedule comes out, but we do know a little about it. I’m sure we’re all excited to see newcomers UCLA, Oregon, USC, and Washington on the schedule for the first time. Michigan State is guaranteed to play each at least once and likely will see some new venues as well.

The Big Ten has also announced it’s sticking with a 20-game conference schedule, so the Spartans will only play three teams twice in the regular season. I imagine they will save these matchups for rivalry games, so you can assume MSU will still see Michigan twice.

That’s what we know at this point. I also highly doubt Tom Izzo will schedule any more high profile matchups. If Baylor is on the schedule, that’ll already be five major non-conference opponents when you add Kansas and the Maui Invitational. We could see Izzo schedule a big mid-major opponent at home like they did last season with Indiana State, but I wouldn’t count on another Power Six opponent hitting the schedule.

It is Izzo though, so anything is possible when it comes to the Spartans’ schedule.