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Michigan State’s 2017 schedule ranked toughest in college football

By Colton Wesley

Oct 29, 2016; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio (left) shakes hands with Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh after the game at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 29, 2016; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Mark Dantonio (left) shakes hands with Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh after the game at Spartan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports /
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Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports wrote on Friday that Michigan State’s football schedule will be the most difficult in college football.

The Michigan State Spartans topped CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli’s list of the most difficult schedules in college football for 2017, which was released on Friday.

Fornelli cites the Big Ten’s nine-game conference schedule—which includes five away games for teams in the East including Michigan State—as the biggest contributor to his ranking. The Spartans will face both Ohio State and Michigan on the road this season, host Penn State, and every team they play from the West finished above .500 last season.

Michigan State’s schedule will not be much easier during the non-conference season. After opening against Bowling Green, the Spartans host Western Michigan—who lost in the Cotton Bowl after going 13-0 and winning the MAC championship during the regular season—and Notre Dame, a historic rival which is expected to improve off of its disappointing 2016.

The Spartans are coming off a disastrous offseason and will be without as many as eight projected starters when the season kicks off on September 2. Michigan State suffered its worst season of the Mark Dantonio era in 2016, finishing 3-9—including a 1-8 conference record and a seven-game losing streak—and missing out on a bowl game for the first time in a decade.

The over/under for Michigan State’s win total was released at 6.5 when released in May, so Michigan State’s football team is expected to progress back to the mean in 2017, but if it does, Fornelli writes, “it will have earned it.”

Next: Early look at Lions' week four opponent

Michigan State will open its football season at home against Bowling Green on September 2 at 12:00 p.m. after being moved up a week from September 9 at the end of last year and despite speculation that it would open on a Friday night, as it has for the past six seasons.

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