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Column: Don't pass up on football success

September 22, 2015
<p>The Michigan State football team says a prayer after the game against Oregon on Sept. 12, 2015 at Spartan Stadium. The Spartans defeated the Ducks 31-28. Alice Kole/The State News</p>

The Michigan State football team says a prayer after the game against Oregon on Sept. 12, 2015 at Spartan Stadium. The Spartans defeated the Ducks 31-28. Alice Kole/The State News

Photo by Alice Kole | The State News

Spartan fans have before them a unique opportunity.

For the first time since 1966, MSU football is ranked No. 2 in the country. You read that correctly, No. 2. It’s been nearly 50 years since the Spartans held a ranking higher than No. 3 and for the greater part of those nearly fifty years, the Spartans swam in mediocrity.

Though their record indicates 301-250-9 over those fifty seasons, the record has been skewed by the Mark Dantonio era. If you take out the past eight seasons under Dantonio, the record drops to 226-219-9, only seven games above five hundred.

And that is exactly the reason you cannot pass this up.

The recent success of the football program has not been seen since the 50s and 60s, or since many Spartan students’ grandparents were in college. Most of their parents and older siblings suffered through the agony of mediocre football seasons.

Our parents witnessed years without bowl games, Big Ten titles and even a competitive rivalry with Michigan; somethings many of us now take for granted.

The chance to see this brand of football and success does not come around often but now there is an opportunity to revel in the success of MSU. Do not pass it up.

Win or lose, MSU Spartan spirit radiates throughout campus. However, the grumblings about a weak home schedule seem oddly out of place here.

The No. 2 football team takes the field on campus, but because they’re playing a weaker team the attendance will be down? This brand of football comes once in a generation and is happening in your own backyard.

Leaving early or at halftime of a game is unacceptable and speaks to the character of those sports fans. Granted, MSU is great and will have a few games that become boring and end in a blowout.

Also granted, the weather isn’t always fair but if MSU fans are supposed to be “the best fans in the country” – leaving at halftime doesn’t reflect that, no matter the circumstances.

The opportunity to see the No. 2 team in the land may not come again for another 50 years.

Though as long as Dantonio is at the helm, there is reason to believe otherwise. However, the chance to witness a national championship in football happens only at a few schools a year; and out of the 127 FBS football teams, 126 finish the season without a national title.

MSU currently has an outstanding possibility to be the one team that can claim the title. You have an opportunity to be a part of that and witness it on Saturdays this fall in Spartan Stadium; it’s an opportunity not afforded to many other schools.

It’s an opportunity many past Spartan fans didn’t receive when they called MSU home. I’m almost certain a vast majority of the alumni, would trade places in a heart beat to be able to cheer on the No. 2 ranked Spartans as a student. If anything, do it for the alumni.

So Spartans, grab your sweatshirts emblazoned with the Spartan logo. Grab your gloves, your headgear, and your keys. Head down to Spartan Stadium and take a moment to realize the chance to see a product this good may never come again.

MSU has a very real shot at winning a national championship on a very large stage. Don’t take it for granted – realize the unique opportunity before you.

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