Ducks meet Michigan State Spartans again

As the Oregon football program moves up to the Big Ten, they will face a number of new teams on a regular basis. Most of the Oregon Ducks’ old Pac-12 regional opponents will no longer face the Oregon football team in the future. Instead, as a new member of the Big Ten, the Ducks will face teams from the Midwest such as the Michigan State Spartans.

The Oregon Ducks and Michigan State Spartans haven’t faced each other all that often, but their relatively short history is, quite frankly, quite fascinating. Despite being separated by many, many miles, the two teams have met before (and will meet sooner rather than later).

In total, the Ducks and Spartans have met on seven different occasions, with their encounters on the football field spanning four different decades. The series began in 1979 when the Oregon Ducks traveled to East Lansing, Michigan. Unfortunately for the Ducks, the Oregon football team did not have much fun during that trip east.

Oregon lost its first game to Michigan State 41-17. However, a year later, the Ducks got a little revenge at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, beating Michigan State 35-7 to even the series.

The Ducks and Spartans did not meet again until the 1998 and 1999 Oregon football seasons, splitting home and away games.

The next home-and-away games were in 2014 and 2015, with the home teams winning both games (Oregon in 2014 and Michigan State in 2015). Overall, the visiting team has never won in this series. In the only meeting on neutral ground, Oregon won a sluggish 7-6 bowl game in Santa Clara.

With the Oregon Ducks moving up to the Big Ten, this series will almost certainly be played more regularly. And who knows, maybe one day an away team will win a game?