Mississippi State already knew its 2024 Southeastern Conference opponents, but the Bulldogs now know their full schedule for Jeff Lebby’s first season as head coach.
After three non-conference games to open the year — at home against Eastern Kentucky on Aug. 31, at Arizona State on Sept. 7 and at home against Toledo on Sept. 14 — MSU opens SEC play at Davis Wade Stadium against Florida on Sept. 21.
The Bulldogs have never played the Colonels, Sun Devils or Rockets in program history. 2024 will mark the second straight year that MSU will open with a Football Championship Subdivision opponent, and the third consecutive year in which the Bulldogs will host a team from the Mid-American Conference. MSU defeated Bowling Green in 2022 and Western Michigan this year.
Eastern Kentucky finished 5-6 in 2023, including 4-2 in the United Athletic Conference. Arizona State, in its final year in the Pac-12 before moving to the Big 12, stumbled to a 3-9 season and was 2-7 in conference play. Toledo ran through MAC play unbeaten, losing only in the season opener by two points against Illinois, but the Rockets fell to Miami-Ohio in the conference championship game.
Due to the SEC’s now-former divisional format and scheduling quirks, the Bulldogs have played the Gators just once in the last 13 years — a 13-6 Florida victory in Starkville in Dan Mullen’s first year as Gators’ head coach following his nine seasons with MSU.
After hosting Florida, the Bulldogs will travel to Austin to take on SEC newcomer Texas in what will be the Longhorns’ first-ever conference game as an SEC member. The teams have split four all-time head-to-head matchups, most recently a 38-11 Texas victory in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day, 1999.
MSU will have a bye in the first weekend of October before traveling to Georgia, which has won 39 straight regular-season games, on Oct. 12. The Bulldogs will then play three in a row at home, with former SEC West foes Texas A&M and Arkansas visiting Starkville to close out October and then Massachusetts coming in for MSU’s final non-conference contest on Nov. 2.
The Minutemen, one of four remaining independent Football Bowl Subdivision programs, went 3-9 this fall, and MSU swept UMass in a home-and-home series in 2016 and 2017. Lebby’s team will then head to Tennessee before a second open date on Nov. 16. The home finale will pit MSU against Missouri on Nov. 23, and the Bulldogs close out the regular season with the Egg Bowl at Ole Miss on Nov. 30.
For now, the Egg Bowl is scheduled for the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, after it has been played on Thanksgiving night in each of the last six non-pandemic seasons. That date is subject to change, however, with the SEC likely to move some of the rivalry games that weekend to either Thursday or Friday.
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