EAST LANSING -- In Mark Dantonio's first year as a Michigan State assistant, the Spartans ended their 1995 regular season with a game against Penn State, as a new tradition between the two schools had started to take hold.
Penn State had joined the Big Ten two years earlier, and in 1994 the two teams played in the last game of the regular season for the first time. The school's two coaches, George Perles and Joe Paterno, commissioned the Land Grant Trophy to go to the winner of the rivalry each year.
That began a stretch of 17 straight years in which Michigan State's Big Ten finale was against Penn State.