ASU Football: home-and-home series with Michigan State announced

Arizona State has announced a football home-and-home series with Michigan State. The Spartans will travel to Tempe on Sept. 8, 2018 and the Sun Devils will return the trip to East Lansing on Sept. 14, 2019.

"I am excited that we are able to announce the series with Michigan State University," head coach Todd Graham said in a statement released by Arizona State.  "Scheduling is very important to the overall success of a program and this is the type of matchup that we are seeking to fill our future dates. This series will help build our football program."

The Sun Devils and "Sparty" have met twice before. Arizona State fell to Michigan State in East Lansing 12-3 in 1985 but the Sun Devils got the best of the green and white in 1986 with a 20-17 victory over the Spartans at Sun Devil Stadium.

Michigan State has found great success as a program recently winning the Big Ten title and beating Stanford in the 2014 Rose Bowl under head coach Mark Dantonio.

"It is with great pleasure that we announce this series with Michigan State," athletic director Ray Anderson said in a statement released by Arizona State. "We are committed to playing future football games against some of the nation's finest non-conference opponents every year. We believe our fan base will enjoy this series as well."

A previously scheduled game between Arizona State and San Diego State was moved from Sept. 8, 2018 to Sept. 15, 2018 to make room for the Michigan State game in Tempe.

The Arizona State football program has a recent trend of scheduling tough out of conference games against BCS powerhouses and historically tough programs. They most recently scheduled a home-and-home series with the LSU Tigers in 2022 and 2023.

Notable Arizona State out of conference opponents through 2023 (via fbschedules.com; dates in parentheses):

2014: Notre Dame (11/8)

2015: Texas A&M (9/5, played at Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX)

2016: Texas Tech (9/10)

2017: San Diego State (9/9), At Texas Tech (9/16)

2018: Michigan State (9/8), At San Diego State (9/15)

2019: At Michigan State (9/14)

2020: BYU (9/19)

2021: AT BYU (9/18)

2022: LSU (9/10)

2023: At LSU (9/9)