College football: Michigan State vs. Oregon - Sept. 12, 2015

Michigan State fans stripe Spartan Stadium green and white for their top-10 matchup against Oregon in East Lansing Saturday, September 12, 2015. Michigan State won the game, 31-28.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

EAST LANSING -- A series of late schedule changes left Michigan State with an abnormally early bye in 2016. And without a late change, the same thing could happen again next season.

After Michigan State's season-opening win over Furman on Friday, the Spartans have a bye week on Saturday. Next Saturday's game at Notre Dame then begins a streak of 11 straight games to end the season.

Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio has repeatedly said he plans to use the early bye as a positive. But on Tuesday, he acknowledged the uniqueness of a Week 2 bye.

"It's been a question throughout the process, you know," Dantonio said. "I think we're the only team in America that plays as a bye the second week of the season, and then plays a Power 5 team that next week."

So why do the Spartans have such a unique schedule? It's the result of a series of cancellations and shuffles in the complicated world of college football scheduling.

Two games that were originally on Michigan State's 2016 non-conference schedule were cancelled years after contracts were signed.

The Spartans were originally scheduled to open against Alabama last Saturday, Sept. 3, but Alabama canceled that series in 2013.

That game was meant to be followed by a matchup against Eastern Michigan on this Saturday, Sept. 10 at Spartan Stadium. But since the 2016 matchup in the four-game scheduled series didn't include a guarantee, Eastern requested to cancel it for financial reasons.

That left the Spartans with two holes early in their 2016 schedule, on what qualifies for short notice in the college football scheduling world. Furman filled one in the opener, and the Spartans secured a home-and-home with BYU to make up its 12th game.

That BYU game, though, fell later in the year, on Oct. 8, leaving the Week 2 bye.

Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis said as every school tried to fit one another into its schedule, choosing an ideal bye isn't always an option.

"The unfortunate part, as one school, you can't really dictate where those things are going to go," Hollis said.

CURRENT 2017 SCHEDULE

Sept. 2 -- BYE

Sept. 9 -- BOWLING GREEN

Sept. 16 -- WESTERN MICHIGAN

Sept. 23 -- NOTRE DAME

Sept. 30 -- IOWA

Oct. 7 -- at Michigan

Oct. 14 -- at Minnesota

Oct. 21 -- INDIANA

Oct. 28 -- at Northwestern

Nov. 4 -- PENN STATE

Nov. 11 -- at Ohio State

Nov. 18 -- MARYLAND

Nov. 25 -- at Rutgers

A unique bye is also currently scheduled for Michigan State's 2017 season. As things currently stand, Michigan State is scheduled for a bye on Week 1, then 12 games to finish the season. That's also due to the Alabama cancellation in 2013; the Crimson Tide were slated for the Spartans' opening week in 2017 at Spartan Stadium.

Hollis said Michigan State is "going through the process of trying to move some things around" on its 2017 schedule. All three of its scheduled non-conference opponents have opening-week conflicts: Notre Dame plays Temple, Bowling Green plays South Dakota and Western Michigan plays at USC.

Difficulties in non-conference schedules have arisen in part due to the addition of a ninth Big Ten game, starting this year. That's pushed conference games into weeks that have traditionally been filled by non-conference games.

Hollis said the change to Big Ten schedules have "put a challenge on a few schools to make the flow look good."

Michigan State's schedule is in flux in part due to the emergence of neutral site games, differing philosophies on them between the Spartans and Alabama.

Nick Saban said last year that the Alabama-Michigan State game was canceled because the Crimson Tide prefer to open with neutral site games instead of campus-site games. Alabama hasn't played a home-and-home series since 2010-11, when it played Penn State.

Hollis, meanwhile, has avoided playing regular season neutral-site games. Michigan State has played only one in Dantonio's tenure: against Florida Atlantic in 2010 at Ford Field.

While neutral site games offer larger payouts compared to home-and-home games, Hollis said he also considers player experience, fan experience and the impact on East Lansing when making a decision to move a game off campus. He said he's not currently in any discussions about future neutral-site games.

"I think to move a college game off of a college campus, there has to be a lot of reasons why you would want to do that," Hollis said. "I'm not always an advocate for financial being the only reason to look at."

Instead of preparing for Eastern Michigan this week and looking forward to a bye down the road, Michigan State will spend this weekend off the field. While there are several reasons why that is, Dantonio -- at least publicly -- isn't concerning himself with them.

"You really can't pick your schedule, at least maybe five or 10 years from now," Dantonio said. "I have always just tried to say, 'Hey, what is the advantage of doing these things this way?'"