Michigan State’s off weeks have always been somewhat unique. Typically, those bye weeks come early in the year, often the second, third or fourth weekend of the season. It’s always made the Spartans’ schedule a little different.

This year, Michigan State battles another unique scheduling issue in regards to its weekends off. Like every other team in college football, the Spartans will enjoy two free Saturdays in the fall.

The problem? Those two Saturdays come in a three week span.

In the middle of the season, Michigan State will have its first off week on Oct. 19. The following Saturday, the Spartans host Penn State. On Nov. 2, MSU will have another week to rest.

Mark Dantonio isn’t a huge fan of that format.

“Yeah, I don’t know how that happens guys,” Dantonio said, according to The Detroit News. “You might want to do a story. How does that happen?

“Is there another team in America that has a bye then a game and a bye? I don’t think there is. So that’s a whole different set of…I think that’s a lot of time off, especially when in front of that you play three of the four games away.”

Not only do the Spartans have a unique sequence on the schedule involving bye weeks, they will spend three of the four weeks that precede those free Saturdays away from East Lansing. Those four matchups:

  • Sept. 21 — at Northwestern
  • Sept. 28 — vs. Indiana
  • Oct. 5 — at Ohio State
  • Oct. 12 — at Wisconsin

That two-month span provides quite a challenge for Michigan State.

“It’s a challenge,” Dantonio said. “How do you handle that week? You play one game in three weeks, so what’s the level of your conditioning? When you don’t play football you sort of get out of that. So how do you practice? How do you recruit? All these different things. So you have to make those changes.”

If there’s a positive to Michigan State’s schedule, it’s that the road is a little easier following the bye weeks. The Spartans’ final month of the season contains just one marquee matchup — a road trip to play Michigan on Nov. 16. MSU will play Illinois (Nov. 9), Rutgers (Nov. 23) and Maryland (Nov. 30) to close out the year.

Getting to that part of the season is a big challenge, though. It’s something Dantonio says his team needs to embrace.

“We’ll embrace those, just like we embrace the away games,” he said. “There’s not a place that we’ve played that we haven’t won in this conference. So we can go play and win at any stadium.”