EAST LANSING — This Michigan State football team is a long way away from Mark Dantonio’s 2013 team that beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl. But, the Spartans will make their return to one of college football’s hallowed grounds this Saturday.

No. 10 UCLA, which has played its home games at the Rose Bowl since 1982, will host the skidding Spartans this Saturday, Oct. 24 for a Big Ten regular season bout. The game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on CBS. 

“It’s going to be a great challenge, and a neat opportunity for our guys to play in one of the great cathedrals of college football in the Rose Bowl,” MSU coach Pat Fitzgerald said.

The Spartans (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) are 14 ½-point underdogs after a 24-21 loss to Northwestern extended their losing streak to five games. ESPN Analytics gives UCLA an 83.7% chance to win.

UCLA is 6-0, 4-0 in Big Ten play, under first-year head coach Bob Chesney. The Bruins beat Wisconsin this past week while breaking in new starting quarterback Ty Dieffenbach, who threw for 264 yards and an interception in the 17-7 win. Its X-factor is its run game ,which ranks 12th among Football Bowl Subdivision teams with 231.0 yards per game. Running back Wayne Knight ranks fourth with 11 rushing touchdowns.

Had a few things shook out differently, MSU could have been playing this game at a different venue. In February, coming off a coaching change and a losing football season, UCLA delayed its plans to play home games at SoFi Stadium in nearby Inglewood, where the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers both play.

Michigan State last played in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2014, when backup linebacker Kyler Elsworth — playing in place of suspended captain Max Bullough (now the co-defensive coordinator) — dove to make his historic stop of Stanford’s Ryan Hewitt on fourth-and-1 in the waning minutes to seal a 24-20 win. 

The Spartans are 4-1 all-time in the Rose Bowl, with wins in the 1953 (vs. UCLA), 1955 (vs. UCLA), 1987 (vs. Southern Cal) and 2013 seasons and a loss in 1965 (vs. UCLA).

Pacific Time games haven’t been all that favorable to Michigan State recently, which lost 39-28 at Washington in 2022, 31-10 at Oregon in 2024 and 45-31 at USC in 2025. Those results have more to do with talent and execution than jet lag, but Fitzgerald is following what the sports science says to do in setting up his team’s travel schedule.

Michigan State will travel to Los Angeles in the evening, Thursday, Oct. 22, to get acclimated to Pacific Time. Fitzgerald, who credits his organizational studies degree from Northwestern with his taskmaster nature, has it all planned out. Part of Friday’s plan is for players to visit the Rose Bowl — “so they get their Instagram pictures,” he joked — before game day.

Fitzgerald himself got to visit the Rose Bowl with Northwestern in 1995, when the then-linebacker’s 10-1 Big Ten champions lost to Southern Cal, 41-32. He couldn’t play due to an injury, but he remembers the scenic venue, including the San Gabriel Mountains peeking over the top of the stands.

“The opportunity to play in that historic venue is maybe once in a lifetime for a lot of guys,” Fitzgerald said. “So that’ll be neat. I know UCLA gets to play there annually in all their home games, but for us it’s a unique opportunity.”

If there’s any added motivation to playing in a historic venue, Fitzgerald balked at that. His team is more worried about snapping a losing skid.

“Losing sucks,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t sleep very well. Food tastes like crap. … Dog barks at me. Whole nine yards. I mean, it’s awful. You know how you fix it? Win. That’s what I tell the team.” 

Michigan State at UCLA

▶ Kickoff: 3:30 P.M. ET, Saturday, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif.

▶ TV/radio: CBS/760-AM

▶ Records: Michigan State 2-5, 0-4 Big Ten; UCLA 6-0, 4-0

▶ Line: UCLA by 14½

▶ Series: UCLA leads. 4-3 (Last meeting: UCLA won, 38-13 on Oct. 11, 2025 in East Lansing. The Bruins beat former MSU coach Jonathan Smith with interim head coach Jerry Neuheisel at the helm.)