How does it feel to be flogged?

Give credit where credit is due. Alabama kicked our ass, 49-7. The best commentary yet from ESPN's Adam Rittenberg sums it up nicely:

"Dantonio has done a lot of good things in his four seasons as Spartans coach, but the program clearly isn't at elite status yet. Michigan State didn't perform like it deserved to be in a BCS bowl and was totally noncompetitive against a 9-3 Tide team. It doesn't take away from the Spartans' first Big Ten title in 20 years, but the loss leaves a sour taste after a special regular season. Michigan State must continue its recruiting efforts and keep upgrading the talent to be able to compete with teams like Alabama. The Spartans lose several outstanding seniors like linebacker Greg Jones but return a pretty good core for 2011."

You know what sucked? When Marcus Hyde (#11) was totally run over TWICE by #3 Richardson and #22 Ingram on the one-yard line into the end zone. What did that say? Our talent doesn't match, or Hyde needs to add 25 pounds of muscle by next year. I'll take the former, not the latter.

MSU emabarrased by Alabama

Not sure what the final score will be, but with 6 min left it is 49-7 Alabama. They kicked our ass, they beat us down BAD.

The good news is that at least we have a benchmark - I'm glad MSU played 'Bama... but we have LONG WAYS TO GO to get to the promised land. We were embarrassed today.

Pound Green Pound!

POUND, GREEN, POUND!

Beat 'Bama's Butt

GO GREEN!

ES Prediction: MSU 27, Bama 23

ES predicts Alabama-Michigan State tilt; Tread moves on; Hoops hot second half

Prediction: MSU vs 'Bama
You can read all the other predictions out there. It will be one helluva bruiser contest. In the end: #7 Spartans 27, #15 Tide 23. See ya at the Peanut Barrell at 1 pm tomorrow.

Treadwell
As you've all learned by now, Spartan football OC Don Treadwell has been named the head coach of the Miami at Ohio. This is a good gig - Miami has a gem of a football tradition in the Mid American Conference, it also happens to be Treadwell's alma mater. He was certainly an asset for the Spartans this year.

For those not in the know, Tread used to be the ES' neighbor, when he was an assistant under the befuddled leadership of Bobby Williams. The ES still has Tread's MSU leather jacket. The ES wishes the Treadwell family well...

FYI - who is the current OC for Miami-Ohio? None other than... Morris Watts, the former OC for Michigan State under Nick Saban and Bobby Williams, who actually coached the final three games of the 2002 season after BW was fired. Wow, college FB can be incestual.

MSU Hoops
The Big Green opened its Big Ten season at home, as a #20 rank to host the #14 Minnesota Golden Gophers. MSU is ranked lower than Minny? ??? That didn't add up, and it showed. The Spartans shot 1-14 from behind the arc in the first half and trailed by 7 at the break... but went on a torrid 21-3 run, with Summers hitting 4 straight threes. MSU won, 71-62 but were up by as many as 15 in the second half. Jeez. Wake up, Big GREEN.

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Capital One Bowl Predictions: Alabama vs. Michigan State

OK - we're winding up to the kickoff for the Capitol One Bowl. Two days until the kickoff of Michigan State vs. Alabama Crimson Tide and its hated enemy - former Spartan head coach Nick Saban. The ES will be watching the game with Big Bob at the Peanut Barrell in the center of the Spartan universe, East Lansing. Let us look at predictions - and make your prediction at the poll to the right. The ES digs the prediction of CFN/Scout: "Alabama is going to be shocked by how physical the Spartans are."

Capital One Bowl
1 pm ET. Orlando, Florida.
77 degrees/partly sunny.
ESPN.
#15 Alabama (9-3) vs #7 Michigan State (11-1).
Line: Alabama is a 10 point favorite.

Trending Alabama: CFN/Scout (ALA 31-27), Locksmith Sports Picks (ALA 24-17), Associated Content (ALA), Bleacher Report (ALA 30-21), Cappers Picks (ALA 28-17), Saturday Down South (ALA 31-23), CBS Sports Expert Picks (ALA 4-1), AccuScore (ALA 34-19), Rivals Expert Picks, (ALA 4-0)

Trending Michigan State: NBC Sports (MSU 26-24), ESPN/Pat Forde (MSU 25-24)

Basketball? Who cares

Luckily, we can always count on a rugged Big Ten season and the NCAA tournament. Time to put non-conference 2010 men's hoops to bed. It was pretty ugly vs. Syracuse and Texas, the Big Green couldn't hit a shot if their lives depended on it.

Let's concentrate on football. 8 days and counting until we get to kick Nick Saban around.

Alabama favored by 11 over Michigan State; Big Ten is Underdog in 7 of 8

The bookies in Vegas are making Alabama a decided favorite over Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl. The Crimson Tide are favored by 10 1/2 to 11 points by all the bookies...

Ohio State is the only Big Ten favorite in the bowls, as a 3 pt favorite over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl. All the other Big Ten teams are underdogs: TCU is favored by 2 1/2 over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, Florida is favored by 7 over Penn State in the Outback Bowl, Mississippi State is favored by 6 over Michigan in the Gator Bowl, Texas Tech is favored by 9 1/2 over Northwestern in the Dallas Football Classic, Missouri is favored by 1 over Iowa in the Insight Bowl, Baylor is favored by 2 over Illinois in the Texas Bowl.

I don't see that holding -- Big Ten will win at least half its bowl games...

Why is the BCS a crock? MSU-Alabama or UConn-Oklahoma

UConn is going to a BCS game. What a joke of a BCS game.

Jeff Sagarin ranked UConn #62 in his ratings of teams for the BCS.
UConn is 8-4. MSU is 11-1.
UConn lost to Michigan 30-10, a team Michigan State beat by 17.
UConn also lost to Temple 30-16, Rutgers 27-24, and Louisville 26-0.

What's better is the Capital One Bowl, with Michigan State facing the defending national champion Alabama Crimson Tide and Nick $aban. That's gonna be one helluva game. A shitload better than UConn vs Oklahoma. The Sooners will win by at least 40 points.

The early line is that Oklahoma is favored by 17 points over UConn. The other BCS matchups? Wisconsin by 3 over TCU in the Rose Bowl, Stanford by 3 over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, Ohio State by 3 over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, And, Auburn by 3 over Oregon in the BCS Title game.

Spartans get Saban & the shaft

Well, Ohio St got the Gold Mine and we got the shaft, as expected. Mich State has it's best season in 45 years and does not get an offer to a major bowl, while Ohio State has a down year and heads to it's 6th BCS game. We have never even been to a BCS game. 11-1, beating the Rose Bowl representative extensively I guess is not good enough.

That said, for those of us who think Nick Saban is nothing short of a Devil-ass, money chasing, unethical bastard ... Well we get our chance to kick his ass. Michigan State vs Alabama in the Capitol One bowl on New Years Day. Many of us football fans hate Saban and what he has done to drag college football in the mud. $aban $ucks.

Should be a great matchup and a great game. No BCS stings, but it tells Dantonio we still need to take another step to gain respect. MSU ended #9 in BCS and it is time for us to win a big bowl game and finish in the top 5.

It is complete bullshit that Connecticut and VaTech get BCS bids and we get to watch after posting a Big Ten title at 11-1. Makes you wonder who gets the spoils? Jim Delaney and Big Ten should be ashamed of themselves. We beat Wisconsin convincingly. Sigh.

And a shitty Mich teams gets bumped up to the Gator Bowl? Shows you and Dantonio that this is effort of success needs to be consistent and for the long haul. A one year wonder will not cut it. We need 9-plus wins and a top-10 top-15 finish for several Years in a row to change the culture and national impression of MSU.

Bottom line- we deserve BCS but we cant competes Ohio State unless we beat them straight up. Death to the BCS. And to Ohio State. And to Nick Saban