Michigan State opened its 2009 football camp on Sunday with the players reporting for academic and compliance meetings, as well as physical exams. Practice starts with running tests and a full practice tomorrow morning. The Spartans will practice in full pads for the first time on Friday, Aug. 14.

The ES doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. Want to learn about our offense (7 starters, 18 letters return): read here. Our defense (8 starters, 24 letters return): read here.

An interesting scenario out of Florida relating to next year's MSU vs Florida Atlantic game. FAU is constructing a new stadium that won't be ready until 2011, and owes MSU $150,000 from last year's meeting. According the Palm Beach Post, FAU is considering hosting Michigan State at an NFL stadium as its home site -- and playing at Ford Field in Detroit or Soldier Field in Chicago may bring a hefty Spartan fan base, but as a home game FAU would raise up to $2 million. According to the article, FAU believes they could sell 50,000 tickets in Detroit or Chicago. Their new stadium? $63 million and 30,000 seats as part of an "Innovation Village project that also includes housing, recreation facilities and retail shops."

Funny, I guess if they host the game down in Florida, they wouldn't draw anywhere near as large of a crowd as if they came up to Spartan country to take our dollars up here. This is a bonus for MSU if it works out... we have to play them away as it is, so why not play them just down the road -- it would be a home crowd. And, if in Detroit, it could conceivably save MSU tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs for the team, not to mention less time away from school.