" title="Spartans Weblog">Spartans Weblog

Just one link: ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg reports that, due to not playing an FCS patsie, MSU still controls its own destiny with respect to the Rose Bowl.  I wouldn’t book your plane tickets to Pasadena just yet, though.
Regarding the upcoming football game vs. the Badgers: At noon on Saturday, I anticipate I’ll be frolicking on [...]

Michigan State was pegged as the #2 team in the conference going into this season by the Big Ten media. No complaints here: Purdue had a better conference record than us last year and returns all their starters.  Raymar Morgan is a preseason all-Big Ten pick.  Kalin Lucas’s chances of making the postseason version of [...]

Me, last night:
One set of numbers we haven’t talked about are the career statistics of our senior quarterback: 57.1% completion percentage, 7.0 yards per pass attempt, 32-18 TD-Int ratio.  If Brian Hoyer can just revert to the mean for one game, it will be a good day for the Green and White tomorrow.
Well, that was [...]

Programming note: The Spartans Weblog clan is leaving for sunnier parts on Sunday, returning to Michigan the following Sunday.  So posting will be light-to-nonexistent next week.  I shall return, batteries recharged, ready to do some major tempo-free analysis of the basketball team’s opening exhibition tilt vs. Northern Michigan on Wednesday the 5th.
Links from enemy territory:

MGoBlog, [...]

Some good news for a rivalry week Friday: Russell Byrd has chosen Michigan State over Kentucky and Michigan.  What we know about Mr. Byrd:

Junior out of Fort Wayne.  Becomes MSU’s second commitment of the 2010 class, joining Keith Appling.
6′7″, 190-pound forward known for his perimeter shooting ability.
Ranked as a 4-star recruit by both Scout and [...]

. . . Nick, whose Mat Ishbia Day story captured the hearts of Spartans Weblog readers everywhere (after first capturing the heart of Mrs. Spartans Weblog).  Nick’s “Best Day as a Spartan Story” took home 19 of the 43 votes cast by readers.
Congratulations to Nick on winning a free copy of College Basketball Prospectus 2008-09.  [...]

And by “game preview,” I mean “a bunch of graphs interspersed with random observations and questions of an unanswerable nature.”
Data presented below are from here and here.
Big Picture Reasons I Am Fairly Optimistic About Saturday’s Game

With one spectacular except, MSU has simply been a much better team than Michigan this season.  The graphs below show [...]