Bowl Outlook for Michigan State Following First Bye Week

Here are the current guesses on who and where MSU will play a potential 13th game.

Sep 13, 2025; East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Michigan State offensive lineman Kristian Phillips (71) and running back Elijah Tau-Tolliver (4) celebrate a touchdown against Youngstown State in the fourth quarter at Spartan Stadium. | Brendan Mullin-Imagn Images

Michigan State's shot at a bowl berth in Year 2 of the Jonathan Smith era is pretty much unchanged following the team's first bye week of the season, but the projections remain ongoing for the Spartans through Week 5 of the college football season.

On Sunday, ESPN and CBS both published their set of bowl projections. Two different experts do it each week for ESPN, and one person does it for CBS. After only two of those three had MSU playing in a 13th game last week, all three now include the Spartans in this week's projections.

Here's what all three of them had to say:

ESPN (Bonagura) - GameAbove Sports Bowl vs. Ohio

Sep 6, 2025; Athens, Ohio, USA; Ohio Bobcats quarterback Parker Navarro (13) calls out a play during the second quarter against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Peden Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

After not having Michigan State qualify for a bowl contest last week, ESPN's Kyle Bonagura has seen enough reason over MSU's bye week to move the Spartans back into his bowl-eligible field.

This has been the most common bowl projection for Michigan State this season. At least one of these three experts has predicted this exact matchup in this exact bowl after each of the first five weeks of the season and during the preseason.

There is sense to it, as the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit is where plenty of Big Ten teams that go 6-6 or 7-5 tend to go, and the Ohio Bobcats are a good enough MAC team to make the game truly interesting. Ohio currently stands at 3-2 overall with a win over West Virginia, and its only losses are to No. 1 Ohio State and Rutgers.

ESPN (Schlabach) and CBS - Rate Bowl vs. Baylor

Sep 27, 2025; Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA; Baylor Bears quarterback Sawyer Robertson (13) celebrates with Baylor Bears running back Bryson Washington (7) after a touchdown during the first half against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Boone Pickens Stadium. | William Purnell-Imagn Images

Both ESPN's Mark Schlabach and CBS's Brad Crawford see the Spartans headed out to Phoenix, Arizona to play in the Rate Bowl against the Big 12's Baylor Bears.

Schlabach had the same projection last week for Michigan State, while Crawford is switching it from the GameAbove Sports Bowl against Ohio.

Currently, Baylor sits at 3-2 overall and just beat Oklahoma State 45-27 over the weekend. The Bears don't have a single ranked team remaining on their schedule, so the path to a bowl berth is pretty wide open.

MSU technically played in this bowl game in 2012 when it was named the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, beating TCU 17-16.

Baylor's Sawyer Robertson (13) throws a pass in the second half of the college football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Baylor Bears at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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