The stars are out in East Lansing ahead of the annual rivalry matchup between Michigan and Michigan State football despite the wet and dreary conditions.

Hall of Fame Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders attended a tailgate hosted by Michigan State’s NIL collective, Spartan Dawg 4 Life, along with his son Nick, who is a walk-on on the Spartans’ basketball team. The collective shared a picture of the Detroit legend with the basketball team at the tailgate just following their open scrimmage at the Breslin Center.

The collective, also known as SD4L, is trying to revamp its efforts after cancelling most of the contracts they had with football players last month due to a lack of funds, among other issues.

The basketball team hosted a scrimmage for the public to show off its preseason top-5 team to fans before the football festivities began. It featured drills as well as a live five-on-five session between the projected starters and bench players.

It was an appetizer for the battle on the gridiron tonight. Michigan is heavily favored to win over the reeling Spartans under the lights at Spartan Stadium.

Sanders has been all over the state with public appearances this fall. He has been in attendance for Lions’ games during their hot start to the season and had a statue of one of his iconic runs unveiled outside of Ford Field.

Plus, back in September, Sanders announced a new documentary with Amazon Prime set to debut on Nov. 21 that promises to reveal the real reason that he decided to hang up his cleats and suddenly retire with so much good football seemingly ahead.