Last week before Michigan State's home-and-home series with Miami (FL) was announced, there was a rumor that the announcement would involve Boise State. At the time, it looked like that rumor turned out to be false, but it actually was just a bit premature, because Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis announced a three-game series with Boise State today.
This series between Michigan State and Boise State is composed of two contracts. The first is for a game on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. This game will kick off the 2012 season for both teams in primetime on ESPN. Why a Friday night? Mark Hollis explains:
"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."
The second part of the contract is a home-and-home series between Michigan State and Boise State in 2022 and 2023. Last week, MSU announced a series with Miami in 2020 and 2021, so now they are set through 2023 for home-and-home series.
Michigan State will play at Boise State on Sept. 17, 2022. The Broncos will make their return to Spartan Stadium on Sept. 16, 2023, more than 11 years after the first game of this series is played.
With Boise State now on the 2012 schedule, MSU's slate of games in two years looks like this:
Aug. 31 - vs. Boise State
Sept. 8 - at Central Michigan
Sept. 15 - vs. Notre Dame
Sept. 22 - vs. Eastern Michigan
Sept. 29 - vs. Ohio State
Oct. 6 - at Indiana
Oct. 13 - vs. Iowa
Oct. 20 - at Michigan
Oct. 27 - at Wisconsin
Nov. 3 - vs. Nebraska
Nov. 17 - vs. Northwestern
Nov. 24 - at Minnesota
That is an extremely tough schedule, but at the same time, it is one of the best home schedules I've seen in a while. MSU season-ticket holders will get seats to games against Boise State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska all in the same season. I think those season-ticket packages will sell themselves with the amount of great games on the schedule.