Michigan State’s last game at Ford Field didn’t go well on the field. But the fan experience is part of the reason the Spartans are heading back this season.
What’s best for Michigan State — and for most of northern-state college football — is to not host a game on Thanksgiving weekend, especially if it’s going to be a game against on non-rival or a brand that doesn’t move the needle. The students are away. It’s often colder than sin. Unless the team is rolling, it’s a game to skip. And, as we saw, many MSU fans did last season.
Until the season begins a week earlier (which is probably coming, to accommodate the now-expanded playoff) or the Spartans stop getting slapped with a home game on that frigid final Saturday seemingly every year — that’s three years in a row and four of the last five, if you’re counting — playing that game at Ford Field in Detroit is an increasingly appealing option. Especially if Maryland is the opponent.
MSU announced Wednesday that’ll again be moving its season finale — scheduled for Nov. 29 against the Terrapins — to Ford Field, as it did for its game against Penn State two years ago.
Back then I thought it worked as a one-off or a once-in-while thing. Nothing more than that, though.
But then the game there against Penn State happened and, despite the dismal night on the field, most of the feedback I received was from fans who enjoyed being at Ford Field for that particular weekend. And then last season also happened, with the Spartans playing Rutgers on Thanksgiving weekend in front of a depressingly small crowd at Spartan Stadium. Any argument that fans couldn’t stomach giving up a precious final game day in East Lansing — even in miserable weather, with the students away — was lost.
The better fan experience — comparing two dreadful on-field…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/couch-msu-football-playing-finale-171005358.html
Author : Lansing State Journal
Publish date : 2025-03-05 17:10:00
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