Parking

Every home game brings an influx of traffic, which can cause issues with parking. Because of this, certain parking garages will be closed through 2 p.m. today. The closed lots are: 

• Lot 62 on the north side of IM Sports West and Spartan Stadium.
• Lot 124 on the north side of IM Sports West and Spartan Stadium.
• Lot 61 located on the west side of Spartan Stadium.
• Lot 79 located on the south side of Spartan Stadium.

Rozman said parking lots reserved for those who have parking passes and donors are set to open around 3 p.m., corresponding with the time tailgating is allowed to start.

“All of the public parking lots will open, and our public safety staff and our parking staff will be out there staffing all of those lots and assisting with directing traffic starting around 2 p.m.,” Rozman said. 

MSU communicated with faculty and staff to "let them know to be extremely patient and use a lot of discretion" with the influx of traffic, Rozman said. This can include allowing employees to leave work early to modify their class schedules. 

Building accessibility

Every game day, most doors in campus buildings are locked as a safety precaution. However, with this game being on a weekday, those buildings will be locked starting at 3 p.m.

“The buildings locking at 3 p.m. corresponds with the tailgating hours,” Rozman said. “The reason that we do that is when tailgating starts, we know that folks are coming to campus to start tailgating and to prepare for the football game that may not be affiliated with the university.”

Rozman said students, faculty and staff can enter locked buildings using an MSU-issued Spartan ID. 

“We really want to make sure that our academic buildings are reserved for our students, faculty and staff, just knowing that there's an influx of people coming on campus," Rozman said. "It's just an additional security measure that we take to keep our academic building safe and our community safe.”

Preparing for bad weather

According to the National Weather Service, today's weather may consist of rain with a chance of thunderstorms. MSU has plans in place in the event of bad weather or thunderstorms taking place before or during the game.

“We have a comprehensive and robust safety and security plan in place that guides that entire operation," Rozman said. "Part of that security plan includes a unified command post at the stadium and our Emergency Operation Center that will both be active."

Rozman said a meteorologist representative from the National Weather Service will also be on site in the unified command post. 

“The purpose of that is so we can have the best information possible to make accurate decisions that we need to make for the event operation," Rozman said. "Primarily, we are looking for lightning and severe weather and the proximity to campus.”

Rozman said if thunderstorms occur during the game or there’s a chance of lightning striking near or around the stadium, the command post will inform attendees to take shelter in or around the stadium via social media, Nixle alerts and the university’s mass notification system.

People can take shelter in IM West, Wells Hall, Munn Ice Arena or in their cars.

“If the game already started and there is a need at any point to pause the game, we will do that in consultation with the National Weather Service and game officials and our athletics officials,” Rozman said.

If a lightning strike requires the stadium to be evacuated, Rozman said that will be communicated via the stadium's scoreboard and the public alert system.

"We have a comprehensive evacuation plan in place that all of our public safety personnel are trained in and we will guide people where they can go to shelter in place," Rozman said. "The weather ... while it may be unfortunate that we have to kind of to deal with that, we are definitely prepared for that and we have to plans in place and the people in place to make those crucial decisions to ensure the safety of our community.”

Rozman said he encourages attendees, especially those who are students, to download the SafeMSU app or sign up for MSU’s Nixle channel by texting SPARTAN FB24 to 888777 to stay connected with any information regarding safety and weather.

He also encourages anyone planning on attending the game to familiarize themselves with the stadium guidelines, which detail what is and is not allowed in the stadium.