The Michigan State Spartans football (college football) program competes in NCAA Division I-A (Division I-A) and the Big Ten Conference. Michigan State has won or shared a total of 6 national championships (1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1965, and 1966), two Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championships (1903 and 1905), and 6 Big Ten championships (1953, 1965, 1966, 1978, 1987, and 1990). Currently 24 former Spartans are playing in the NFL.

Today, the team competes in Spartan Stadium (Spartan Stadium, East Lansing), a 75,005 person football stadium in the center of campus, though frequently the stadium holds more than 80,000 spectators. Michigan State hired Mark Dantonio on November 27, 2006 as head coach. MSUs traditional archrival is the University of Michigan (Michigan Wolverines football), against whom they compete for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Michigan State is one of three Big Ten teams to have an annual non-conference football game against the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame Fighting Irish football). The Spartans also share a rivalry with Penn State University (Penn State Nittany Lions football), against whom they compete for the Land Grant Trophy, with the game being the final contest for both teams during the Big Ten Conference regular season.