With a seventh win, the Spartans will more than likely solidify a bowl-game selection. And while MSU football head coach Mark Dantonio said his team would be “naive if we didn’t look at the standings” to see who has to lose for the Spartans to lock up a bowl selection, he knows the easiest way to secure a bowl game is to beat Penn State.

“We can control our own destiny here this weekend, which is the way we want it to be,” Dantonio said. “That’s the main message. You don’t want anything given to you, you need to take it.

“Obviously, seven wins puts us for sure in a bowl-game situation, six puts us in a situation.”

If MSU loses, only an Indiana loss will keep the Spartans from occupying the last spot of the bowl-eligible Big Ten teams. If MSU wins and Indiana beats Purdue, though, the Spartans would catapult ahead of the Boilermakers in the Big Ten standings. A Northwestern loss also would even the Wildcats’ Big Ten record with that of the Spartans.

There are many “ifs,” and MSU doesn’t want to deal with them. The players have a job to do and that job doesn’t involve mathematics.

They plan on putting the formulas aside — the only numbers that matter are the ones on the scoreboard after Saturday’s home finale against Penn State.

“If we go out and win this week, we really don’t have to worry about whether we make it in or not,” junior quarterback Brian Hoyer said.

“We can only take care of what we can control.”

The Spartans said six wins is still an accomplishment considering where college football analysts picked the Spartans to finish the season. The sight of “bowl eligibility” and “MSU” in the same sentence is enough to show progress.

But just being bowl eligible isn’t enough for MSU.

“We must get this seventh,” senior defensive end Ervin Baldwin said. “Coming into the season, people didn’t even predict us to win six games. But we must get this seventh.”

The Spartans said they viewed the final two games of the regular season as a sort of playoffs — if the team wins, it proceeds to the next round. Purdue was round one and Penn State is round two. Round three is the championship: a bowl game.

Even if the Spartans don’t win Saturday, there’s still a shot at a bowl game. When a reporter mentioned the Motor City Bowl — which is held in Detroit — at Tuesday’s practice, senior linebacker Kaleb Thornhill wasn’t thrilled.

To prevent such a scenario, the Spartans know they have to win Saturday.

“(The Motor City Bowl) is going to be another game that I have the opportunity to play in, but obviously we’re not looking forward to going there,” Thornhill said. “If we take care of business like we should, then we shouldn’t go there.”