MICHIGAN STATE: BIG TEN CHAMPIONS

A little late on the post, but... CONGRATS SPARTANS! We won the Big Ten Championship! Unbelieveable. 11-1 to end the regular season after a 28-22 dominating victory at Penn State. Our first win at JoePa since before he was a coach at PSU - since 1965. Kirk Cousins played fantastic, an impressive 17-of-22 passing for 152 yards and 2 TDs. Even Keith Nlichol played great, another great playcall by OC Treadwell to put him in at QB to throw a tight pass to Charlie Gantt to extend the Spartan lead to 28-10. MSU outgained JoePa 163-84 on the ground, including 118 yards on 28 impressive carries by Edwin Baker. The Spartan defense pressured Penn State QB Matt McGloin all game long and should have had 3-4 INTs. MSU came in prepared and stepped on the jugular early and often. Impressive, impressive performance.

11-1? Possibility for a 12-1 season? Michigan State has never before won 11 games in one season, and we could win 12. Look at the poll to the right, out of 285 votes before the season, only 12 predicted at least 11 wins - just 4.2% of all voters. The ES is not going to complain about settling for a third-tier bowl, even though we manhandled Wisconsin at home earlier this year. Michigan State is Big Ten champs, and we'll be happy to play on New Year's Day and kick some SEC, Big 12, or Pac 10 butt.

The Big Green jumped to #7 in the AP and USA Today polls... BCS ranks Michigan State #8. ... It is just nice to say BIG TEN CHAMPIONS in FOOTBALL.

BCS		Harris Poll			USA Today			Computer Rankings
RK	TEAM	AVG	PVS	RK	PTS	%	RK	PTS	%	AVG	A&H	RB	CM	KM	JS	PW	%
1	Auburn	.9779	2	2	2769	.9716	2	1419	.9620	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1.000
2	Oregon	.9777	1	1	2804	.9839	1	1459	.9892	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	.960
3	TCU	.9167	3	3	2621	.9196	3	1343	.9105	3	3	2	3	3	6	3	.920
4	Stanford	.8413	6	5	2417	.8481	5	1233	.8359	4	8	7	5	4	4	4	.840
5	Wisconsin	.8185	7	4	2441	.8565	4	1282	.8692	7	4	4	12	9	11	7	.730
6	Ohio State	.7632	8	6	2301	.8074	6	1213	.8224	9	5	6	8	14	15	10	.660
7	Arkansas	.7189	12	8	1997	.7007	8	1012	.6861	5	9	8	9	5	3	5	.770
8	Michigan State	.6980	10	7	2080	.7298	7	1083	.7342	11	7	11	6	15	14	9	.630
9	Oklahoma	.6780	13	9	1809	.6347	9	943	.6393	6	6	12	4	7	7	8	.760
10	LSU	.6067	5	11	1569	.5505	12	796	.5397	7	11	9	10	6	5	6	.730
11	Boise State	.5805	4	10	1802	.6323	10	869	.5892	14	13	5	11	16	16	12	.520
12	Missouri	.5148	14	14	1291	.4530	14	666	.4515	10	10	17	7	11	8	11	.640
13	Nebraska	.5071	15	13	1446	.5074	13	773	.5241	15	14	14	15	13	10	14	.490
14	Oklahoma State	.4630	9	16	1171	.4109	15	661	.4481	12	12	13	13	10	13	15	.530
15	Virginia Tech	.4396	16	12	1503	.5274	11	843	.5715	20	20	18	20	24	22	20	.220
16	Alabama	.4201	11	18	1113	.3905	19	501	.3397	12	16	10	17	12	9	13	.530
17	Nevada	.4043	19	15	1231	.4319	17	621	.4210	17	18	16	16	17	18	17	.360
18	Texas A&M	.3910	17	19	1032	.3621	18	503	.3410	16	15	20	14	8	12	16	.470
19	South Carolina	.3817	18	17	1142	.4007	16	626	.4244	18	17	19	18	18	17	19	.320
20	Utah	.2254	20	21	567	.1989	21	291	.1973	19	21	15	19	19	20	18	.280
21	Florida State	.2125	22	20	650	.2281	20	353	.2393	22	19	22	21	22	23	22	.170
22	Mississippi State	.1630	25	22	393	.1379	22	223	.1512	21	22	21	25	20	19	21	.200
23	Arizona	.0713	21	25	120	.0421	NR	47	.0319	23	23	23	0	21	21	23	.140
24	West Virginia	.0542	NR	23	251	.0881	24	110	.0746	24	0	0	23	0	0	0	.000
25	Northern Illinois	.0482	NR	24	161	.0565	23	130	.0881	24	0	25	0	0	0	0	.000

Prediction: Michigan State at Penn State

The ES is in Chicago, and will be heading up to The Stretch on Addison to join fellow green and white and watch the Big Green take on Joe Pa and his little men.

ES predicts... Michigan State 23, Pennsylvania State 21.

Kickoff at Noon, ET. ESPN 2.
Line: Michigan State favored by 2.

GO SPARTANS... get to Pasadena!

Penn State favored by 3.5 at Michigan State

The latest out of Las Vegas has the bookies placing Joe Pa as a 3.5 point favorite at Michigan State this Saturday. Ohio State is favored by 13 at scUM; Iowa by 13 at home over Minny; Purdue by 2.5 at Indiana...

Here is the most recent USA Today poll....

RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS
1	Florida (48)	10-0	1460
2	Texas (4)	10-0	1397
3	Alabama (7)	10-0	1388
4	TCU	10-0	1277
5	Cincinnati	10-0	1219
6	Boise State	10-0	1183
7	Georgia Tech	10-1	1127
8	Ohio State	9-2	1019
9	Pittsburgh	9-1	997
10	LSU	8-2	956
11	Oregon	8-2	875
12	Penn State	9-2	772
13	Oklahoma State	8-2	750
14	Wisconsin	8-2	630
15	Iowa	9-2	584
16	Virginia Tech	7-3	558
17	Stanford	7-3	516
18	Brigham Young	8-2	404
19	Clemson	7-3	274
20	Oregon State	7-3	256
21	USC	7-3	239
22	Houston	8-2	229
23	Utah	8-2	212
24	Miami (FL)	7-3	156
25	Nebraska	7-3	107
25	North Carolina	7-3	107

Dropped from rankings: Arizona 19, West Virginia 23, South Florida 24, Auburn 25
Others receiving votes: Arizona 87, Navy 76, Rutgers 74, California 55, Mississippi 46, West Virginia 46, CENTRL MICHIGAN 27, Temple 17, Oklahoma 15, Boston College 14, Auburn 8, Texas Tech 7, Nevada 6, Northwestern 3, Georgia 2,