L   7 - 21 

Michigan State joined the Big Ten for the 1953-54 season, and it was the first matchup between these two schools. They were called "Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science" and went by MSC instead of MSU until they changed their name in 1955. They were coming off of two undefeated national championship teams in 1951 and 1952, and riding a 24-game winning streak and #2 rating. Turnovers were costly for the Hawks, losing 4 fumbles and giving up 3 interceptions, with most of them on MSC's side of the ball. Jim Freeman punted twice for a 48-yard average, and also had a big hit on MSC's QB, which took him out of the game. Frank Gilliam caught 4 passes for 21 yards to lead the Hawks in receiving. Binkey Broeder scored Iowa's lone TD in the 3rd quarter. Ed Vincent rushed 8 times for 57 yards. The defense held the Spartans to 98 yards on 39 carries (2.5 yard average). Iowa was as close as 14-7 in the 4th quarter, but the Spartans added one more TD to seal the victory.

	1	2	3	4	F
Iowa	0	0	7	0	7
Michigan State	14	0	0	7	21