Under head coach Mark Dantonio, No. 7 MSU has improved from year-to-year (with a few hiccups along the way), ultimately reaching the self-acclaimed mountaintop last season. But that still wasn’t enough to win over the so-called college football experts.

Despite winning a Big Ten and Rose Bowl championship a year ago, talk of “has MSU officially arrived?” still remains. Shoot, I won’t lie to you, that’s still something I constantly subconsciously battle in my mind, trying to solve whether last year was a fluke or not.

The experts over in Las Vegas surely think it was though, putting MSU as nearly a two-touchdown underdog this week against No. 3 Oregon. A program that beat not one, but two top ten teams to end last season, will now need to take down another top ten foe on Saturday in Autzen Stadium to finally catch the eye of those wise guys in Vegas.

After watching week one, outside of a few potentially serious injuries, there is no noticeable area of concern for the green-and-white. No apparent reasons why Sparty should be expected to have its doors blown off by a team that has been locked down by Stanford the last two seasons. That’s right, Stanford — otherwise known as the victim of Kyler Elsworth’s leaping fourth-down stop in Pasadena.

So once again, MSU is taking on the role of playing with a chip on their shoulder, but that’s nothing new. That mindset led the Spartans all the way to the Rose Bowl last year and is something junior defense end Shilique Calhoun said earlier this week he personally likes.

Some of the Spartans’ underdog image could come from its style of play. MSU is what MSU has always been — vanilla but successful in what it does best. Dantonio has a plan and system in place to get the best out of his players. That’s what has gotten him a couple of Big Ten Championship rings.

But the “pound green pound” motto isn’t what most fans want, in some ways putting MSU in the back seat of college football supremacy. In today’s sports market everyone wants speed, explosive long scoring plays and all the jazz that comes with a team like Oregon. So it only makes sense that MSU can't plop its name onto the college football map until it knocks off a team such as the Ducks.

In 2012, MSU was in a similar position of reaching an elite status. Then-ranked No. 10 MSU welcomed No. 20 Notre Dame with the rest of the nation watching at home to the banks of the Red Cedar for a prime-time matchup. That was the Spartan team that many thought was finally ready to take that next step with similar national championship discussions floating around, but MSU fell flat on its face. The Fighting Irish dominated the Spartans en route to a 20-3 victory. That game created a downward spiral that resulted in a below average 7-6 season.

Now MSU has appeared to hit the point of talent and depth where I personally can’t see them losing more then three games this year. So don’t book your flight to Tempe for a return trip to the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl if MSU does come up short against Oregon.

A loss to Oregon on the road wouldn’t completely ruin MSU’s college football playoff aspirations, but definitely hurt its chances and serve as another missed opportunity like in 2012. With a win, MSU will be in the drivers seat and truly control its own destiny the rest of the way in 2014.

But the question that remains is whether this is finally the year MSU can sustain success and put its name aside the likes of Alabama, Florida State and even Saturday’s opponent in the quack attack of Oregon? Or will the saying “same old Spartans” begin to circulate come Saturday evening when the clock hits zero?

Either way, this trip out west will stand as a defining moment for the program — a game that will leave a lasting mark for potentially years to come.