The Michigan State Spartans will travel to Tempe, Arizona to square off with the Arizona State Sun Devils in a Power Five showdown set to take place at Sun Devil Stadium on Saturday, September 8th, 2018 at 10:45 PM ET. The affair will be televised on the PAC 12 Network as a part of the #PAC12AfterDark special. The two outfits last met in 1986 where the Sun Devils edged out Sparty by a score of 20-17 in Tempe.
Michigan State Spartans at Arizona State Sun Devils Game Overview
Michigan State Spartans
The Spartans come in off a harrowing 38-31 win at home against the Utah State Aggies where we saw MSU close as a 23.5-point upwards favorite. Nevertheless, the Spartans had a difficult time putting Utah State away, failing to cover a lofty line in the process.
Arizona State
The Sun Devils enter off a thrashing of the Texas-San Antonio Road Runners in its home opener when it pummeled the Conference USA opponent by a score of 49-7. Under new Head Coach Herm Edwards, the Sun Devils are looking to change the culture as it finished just 7-6, a season ago. In many markets we saw ASU close laying around 17.5 points, the Sun Devils covered with ease.
Reasons To Back Arizona State
Jet-lag could be a factor in this contest combined with the environs that accompany this affair. Michigan State will be traveling across the country into a far more oppressive climate. The heat of the Arizona desert is still at all kinds of heights this time of year, and this could certainly give ASU an advantage in terms of conditioning. Plus, home field advantage is generally a huge aspect in games in usually palpable across the board in college football and in this case, we are getting over a touchdown.
Reasons To Avoid Michigan State
Arizona State’s offense is a significant step up from Utah State’s. Yet, Michigan State had trouble figuring out how to mitigate the Aggies attack. Some can write this off as blowing off the rust in an opening game, but the fact remains this Arizona State put up 503 yards of offense in its opener. This is not abnormal by any means. ASU returns eight offensive starters that compiled an average of 431 yards of offense in 2017. While Michigan State did make Utah State one dimensional, Sparty gave up 319 yards through the air which is cause for alarm with the Sun Devils a pass-first and pass-often type of team.
Get more details: Michigan State at Arizona State NCAAF Match-Up
