Fresno State football opens the season in The Big House. What to know about the Michigan game

Fresno State will get a shot at taking down the defending national champion when it opens its 2024 football season at Michigan, and get a nice check along with it.

Bulldogs also will get some nice exposure for the brand on Aug. 31 when they play the Wolverines because the game was picked up by NBC as a prime time national telecast. Kickoff set for 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. in the east.

Fresno State is coming off a 9-4 season that included a victory over New Mexico State in the New Mexico Bowl and victories over then-Power Five and now-Power Four conference teams at Purdue and at Arizona State.

Michigan a year ago was 15-0 under former coach Jim Harbaugh with a victory over Washington in the College Football Playoff championship game.

The Wolverines, winners of 22 games in a row at home, are now coached by Sherrone Moore and had a school-record 13 players selected last month in the NFL Draft. Harbaugh took a job as head coach of the NFL Los Angeles Chargers.

It will be the Bulldogs’ first visit to the stadium known as The Big House, and the first time they will open a season against a defending national champion since playing Stanford in 1927.

The game against Michigan already was a big one for Fresno State, financially. Senior associate athletics director for external relations Frank Pucher, who handles football scheduling for the athletics department, landed a $1.85 million guarantee to play the game when it was scheduled in 2020.

The Bulldogs received $1.3 million to play at Purdue last season, and $1.1 million at Arizona State.

Fresno State also will play Washington State on Oct. 12 as part of the Mountain West Conference’s scheduling alliance with the Pac-12 and at UCLA on Nov. 30 to end the regular season.