Seventeen (1998-2000. 2003-present) year MSU beat writer ranks MSU opponents in basketball and football during that time.
1. Alabama football 2010: Yeah, that’s right. MSU has played several national champions in both sports over the years, yet I went with the 2011 Capital One Bowl champions as the best football or basketball team I’ve ever seen play a Michigan State team. As Alabama fans will tell you, that team had tons of injuries. And it had inconsistency. And it had a ridiculous collapse in a loss to Cam Newton and Auburn. It also had Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, Barrett Jones, D.J. Fluker, Marcell Dareus, Dont’a Hightower, Dre Kirkpatrick, etc., etc. A terrific college quarterback and leader (which seems to be Nick Saban’s ceiling at that position at Bama) in Greg McElroy. This team should have won it all going away. Keep in mind, that 2010 MSU team was legitimate. It won a share of the Big Ten, beat Wisconsin and Notre Dame, won big at Michigan, had pros on both sides of the ball. And was made to look like a Division III team by Alabama in a 49-7 humiliation. By midway through the third quarter, you just wondered how many more MSU guys were going to get knocked from the game.
2. Alabama football 2015: I would take the 2010 Alabama team over the defending national champs. Both healthy, neutral field (I mean, I suppose all the fans would be happy either way) and both playing their best football. Of course, the 2015 Alabama team won it all. And if you want to compare results, the 2015 Alabama team won 38-0 over a much better MSU team than the one the 2010 Alabama team destroyed. But again … for the 284th time … the Capital One Bowl was never competitive. This game was, for a full half. And then it got out of hand. And frankly, Jake Coker played above his level that night. So, apologies to the 2015 Alabama football team. You may be No. 1 in the nation right now, but you’re merely No. 2 on the list of opposing teams I’ve watched MSU play on this beat. Will you be OK?
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/.../hey-joe-top-10-best-msus-opponents/82260760/
I appreciate the props from a Michigan State guy.
Three things stick with me from that 2010 game:
- It was the first time all year that we were both healthy and not feeling entitled. I think we were angry at ourselves, and MSUn was just the poor schmucks that were standing across the LOS when we finally got our act together.
- I'm under no illusions that MSUn was fully into that game in the first place. They were in a three-way tie for the Big 10 championship. But due to some bizarre tie-breaker, got jobbed out of the Rose Bowl even though they had beaten the team that went. Like Alabama against Utah in the Sugar Bowl, MSUn just didn't care that much.
- MSUn was forced to punt on 4th and goal. I've been watching college football with at least some degree of awareness for about 45 years. I had never seen that before, haven't since, and don't expect to do so ever again.
To me, the win was kind of bittersweet. A great win over a good team. But also a confirmation of what could have been had we achieved our potential throughout the year.