Tom Izzo rallies support for MSU football amidst early doldrums of Pat Fitzgerald era

East Lansing — If he didn’t have the title of head men’s basketball coach, Tom Izzo’s title might well be “MSU football’s biggest fan.” 

It’s no secret that Izzo, beloved locally and admired from afar for his commitment and dedication to his program and Michigan State University, loves the Spartan football team. He famously rallied student section to get out of Spartan Stadium, and then come back later, amidst a lightning delay before a game against South Florida in 2013, pointing out the "putrid yellow" on the radar that reminded him, disfavorably, of arch-rival Michigan.

On that day, Izzo promised the students that if they left, and then came back, he’d come and sit with them. He did. MSU won, 21-6, and would go on to win a Rose Bowl as part of a 13-1 campaign that year. 

Such endings to the season are not in store for the 2026 Spartans (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) on the football field, but the most popular man in green and white is once more back to issuing a challenge for the fans to show up, show out and stick around as MSU hosts Illinois this Saturday for homecoming. There’s been plenty of consternation of late as the Spartans have lost three in a row, looking less competitive by the week. Fans, particularly students, did not make a point of lingering in the most recent home game vs. Nebraska. 

Athletic director Dan Bartholomae on Wednesday sent out a letter to the greater Spartan community, celebrating homecoming and basically laying out the cold reality: Football needs more resources (translation: money for players in the portal and recruiting, and to retain good ones already on the team) and that the athletic department plans to provide them via Spartan Ventures, and also simultaneously push ahead with the For Sparta initiative that will renovate Spartan Stadium and fund other, more old-school facilities improvements. 

It’s a promising vision for the future and one of Bartholomae’s first big public messages about where things are going since taking over the MSU athletic department a little more than a month ago. And there also appears to be a quiet, between-the-lines acknowledgement that, no matter the acumen of Pat Fitzgerald in his first year running the Spartans, this football team was not positioned to compete in the Big Ten this season.

According to reporting by The Athletic, MSU is spending around $21-25 million on this football roster, right around the revenue sharing cap and toward the bottom of the Big Ten. Programs with similar roster spends in the league, per The Athletic, are Maryland, Northwestern, Washington, Minnesota Illinois and Iowa. Those teams, outside of Purdue lagging behind, make up the floor of how Big Ten programs are spending, per The Athletic's reporting, while UCLA, Wisconsin, Penn State, Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana, USC, Oregon and Ohio State are all well outspending the Spartans, currently.

“Football must be resourced to be competitive immediately, and they will be,” Bartholomae said in the letter, while pointing out Fitzgerald and his program align with his “guideposts” for how resources will get assigned. “Providing those resources as we build towards the future is my primary focus every day.”

But in the meantime, Izzo isn’t content with sparse crowds, no matter the current product on the field. And he’s ready to pull out the old trick of hanging out with the students directly on Saturday. 

In a video posted on social media via MSU athletics, Izzo promoted the homecoming environment and activities around campus — tailgating, the parade, old friends breaking bread — on what should be a nice fall weekend, weather-wise. 

And amidst all that, look out for Izzo taking in the game from the student section after halftime on Saturday, an obvious incentive for that group to stick around. 

“And Spartans of all eras coming back home to cheer on your green and white,” Izzo said in the video. “Saturday promises to be a beautiful day for football. I can’t wait to see all of you at Spartan Stadium. And students, I’m coming to join you after halftime to cheer on our Spartans. Go green.”

Being of and among the students is something that is important for keeping them engaged, Izzo said after his men’s basketball team comprehensively dominated Incarnate Word in an early exhibition. Izzo raved about the crowd that showed up for that contest, with students and season ticket holders being the only ones let in.

Plenty of students came and then went right to the Munn Field campout next door afterwards. Izzo got out there, too, something he was clearly anxious to do on Friday evening in order to spend time with the students he feels are integral to his program being what it is.

He also let on that he wanted to cajole plenty of them into supporting the football team better on Saturdays. 

“They've been unbelievable over the years, and I'm gonna recruit some of them to get over in that corner in football, and see if we can keep it going,” Izzo said last Friday. “I don't know how they'll be. It seems like everywhere the students are not doing quite as much. Many other interests and things. And that's why I think you gotta do stuff with them. You gotta let them know how important they are. I said it before, and I'll say it again: Won 54 games straight here, and our students won a lot of them. We're just not that good without them. So, home court means a lot. Fans are great.”