All Eyes on the State of Michigan This Weekend in College Football
Big Ten college football and Michigan will be under the spotlight this weekend.
The two flagship football programs of Michigan and Michigan State will open their home schedule Saturday.
Attendance at the two Michigan schools will close in on a combined 200,000, as the Michigan State Spartans ranked No. 5 in the nation host the No. 6 ranked Oregon Ducks.
Earlier on Saturday, Jim Harbaugh returns to Ann Arbor to make his Wolverines’ coaching debut against the Oregon State Beavers.
Both football programs have a storied history filled with thrilling wins and heartbreaking losses. The stakes of the matchup in Ann Arbor are not that of those in East Lansing where the Spartans take on the Ducks, a game between to top 6 ranked teams, but the Michigan program is starting a turnaround and every game means as much as the next.
The Spartans have dominated the rivalry with the Wolverines for the past seven years, rising to prominence nationally while Michigan has fallen on hard time.
The Spartans have played five top 10 ranked teams since 2013, but never at home. Ohio State the eventual national champion was only ranked No. 14 when they beat the Spartans in East Lansing last year.
Mark Dantonio the Michigan State head coach said the big games have been played on their home field, but Saturday’s is one of the biggest.
Just an hour to the east there has never been a bigger debut for a Michigan head coach. Harbaugh, a former player of the year in the Big Ten is proud to be on the Wolverines sideline after spending the past few seasons coaching the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers after a stint as head coach of the Stanford Cardinal.
The hype is huge in Michigan this week. With only an hour separating the two schools a great deal has gone on the past week and thousands have flocked to the two cities in anticipation of the two games. With the games being played at different times during the day and night, Michigan football fans will have plenty to do on this second Saturday of September.
Michigan State is favored to win by 3.5 points over the Oregon Ducks. Both teams have high-powered offenses and both should put a number of points up on the board.
Michigan is favored in its matchup with Oregon State by 14.5 points. The Wolverines looked good in their opening day loss last week and Harbaugh should have them ready for what should be a HUGE Michigan football weekend for both schools.
