Quarterback Connor Cook led the Spartans (12-1, No. 5 CFP) on a 22-play drive that set up Scott’s 1-yard run on third down. Dabo Swinney was making good on his pizza party promise.
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Before winning bowl games the past four years, Dantonio’s first really good season as the Spartans’ head coach ended with an embarrassing bowl loss to the Crimson Tide and the coach he calls a mentor. Michigan State’s top three rushers – Scott, Gerald Holmes and Madre London – have a combined 1,614 yards and 22 TDs. Butler entered this week’s rankings at No. 18. He was the defensive coordinator for Ohio State in 2002 with a group of Buckeyes who believed they could not be defeated. Perhaps MSU was actually ranked 5th in the final College Football Playoff ratings but the top-notch debate team showed up at the committee’s doorstep and just brutally debated them until they let the Spartans in?
Alabama got 189 yards from Derrick Henry on a staggering 44 carries against Florida’s stingy defense Saturday to win the SEC title game 29-15. There were no hasty invitations carelessly tossed out past year asking mediocre programs to join the Big 12 just for the sake of having a championship game.
Michigan State claims six football national championships but none since Hall of Fame head coach Duffy Daughtery led the Spartans to a 9-0-1 mark in 1966. Michigan State is tied for 48, Ohio State is 45th.
When the schools reunited in Arizona almost a decade later, it turned into the Buckeyes’ third Fiesta Bowl win in four years, featuring a smorgasbord of big plays: a 56-yard TD catch by Ted Ginn Jr., a 68-yard TD reverse by Ginn, an 85-yard TD catch by Holmes and a game-clinching 60-yard TD run by Antonio Pittman. As of late, the Spartans have been playing very good defense, and just find a way to win the game at the end. No. 2 Alabama will play No. 3 Michigan State at the Cotton Bowl in the nightcap of the December 31 doubleheader. This was Iowa’s first Big Ten championship game appearance.
Alcorn State will face North Carolina A&T in the inaugural Celebration Bowl.
WELCOME BACK: The two newcomers to this week’s poll are both returning to the rankings. Alabama; 4. Oklahoma; 5.
Iowa got their first points 9 minutes into the first.
Ohio State, Notre Dame, Florida State and North Carolina round out the top 10. Ohio State; 6. Stanford; 7.
You’d also be demanding that some athletes suit up for 16 games, further blurring the line between college and professional sports, and you’d be asking fan bases to choose among traveling to a conference title game, quarterfinal playoff game and potential semifinal and championship game.
There could be a few changes near the top of the AP poll following Saturday night’s conference title games.
If you want to put something into a time capsule to reflect what Big Ten football was all about, you could throw in that Michigan State-Iowa game, along with images of the 10-year War between Bo and Woody, vintage film of Red Grange, Bubba Smith, Tommie Harmon, Archie Griffin and Eddie George.
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This was the first time that many Top 25 teams lost to unranked opponents in non-conference play since 2013, according to STATS. In addition, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Penn State and Wisconsin collected bids as part of the largest and most diverse postseason lineup in conference history.
