The Ducks will face the Michigan State Spartans again

As the Oregon football program enters the Big Ten, it will have to face a number of new teams on a regular basis. In most cases, most of the Oregon Ducks’ former Pac-12 regional opponents will not face the Oregon football team in the future. Instead, as a new member of the Big Ten, the Ducks will have the opportunity to face Midwestern teams like the Michigan State Spartans.

The Oregon Ducks and Michigan State Spartans haven’t exactly played each other very often, but their relatively brief history is pretty intriguing, to be perfectly honest. 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 on-field encounters 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 didn’t have much fun on that trip east.

Oregon ended up losing their first meeting against Michigan State by a score of 41-17. A year later however, at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, the Ducks got a little revenge and beat Michigan State 35-7 to even the series.

The Ducks and Spartans did not meet again until the 1998 and 1999 Oregon football seasons, in which they split home-and-home meetings.

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

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