As Big Ten 2010 Football Media Days began Monday in Chicago, the Big Ten released the top three teams in its preseason poll. And not surprisingly, Ohio State was chosen by the media as the top team in the conference, followed by Iowa and Wisconsin.
After going undrafted in the 2010 NFL Draft in April, former MSU wide receiver Blair White immediately was signed by the Indianapolis Colts as a free agent. White joins a team loaded with talent at the receiver position and has no guarantee of making the team once training camp is complete. However, the one-time MSU walk-on could be a valuable asset to Indianapolis or any other NFL team next season.
Representing both the United States and Canada, two MSU rowers earned medals last week at the Under-23 Rowing World Championships in Brest, Belarus.
A lot has happened in the last 1,000 days. Three different national champions have been crowned in college basketball, the first non-white U.S. president has taken office and three separate “Twilight” movies have been released, making obsessive girls around the globe decide between Team Edward or Team Jacob. But not once, in all that time, has Michigan defeated MSU in football or men’s basketball, the two biggest college sports in the country.
Although it is the offseason for the MSU baseball team, a number of Spartans have spent their summers on the diamond playing for teams in various college leagues.
Along with freshman Liz Nagel and senior Natalie Brehm, six other Spartans — senior Michelle Bowles, juniors Maddi Massa and Shannon Warner and incoming freshmen Lindsey McPherson and Christine Meier — qualified for match play in the 94th Michigan Women’s Amateur. MSU head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll also is competing in the event.
As the 2010 college football season approaches, the MSU football coaching staff has been hot on the recruiting trail trying to sign players for 2011. Monday, the Spartans picked up their 10th verbal commitment — safety Arjen Colquhoun out of Canada — of what looks to be a solid class. Here is a look at the players committed to MSU so far from the class of 2011.
MSU junior quarterback Kirk Cousins has been named as the 14th quarterback to be put on the Manning Award Watch List for the upcoming season, the Allstate Sugar Bowl announced Monday. The award goes to the best quarterback in the country at the end of each season.
Former MSU cornerback Jeremy Ware wasn’t projected by many experts to be selected in the 2010 NFL Draft. But he was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the seventh round of April’s draft, and ended up being the only Spartan chosen. Last Wednesday, Oakland announced it had signed Ware to a four-year, $1.85 million contract, which included a $62,450 signing bonus. After Ware made his entrance into the NFL official, The State News spoke with the new Raider about his transition to the professional ranks, his future career and his time at MSU.
With 16 experienced players returning from last season’s roster, the MSU softball team has a chance to make some noise in the Big Ten next spring. Add in the fact they’ll be playing in a newly renovated, $2 million stadium, and the Spartans have a lot to look forward to in 2011. The renovations to the softball stadium, which include 120 chair back seats, a new press box, backstops and handicap-accessible seating, are expected to be finished in December, making it ready for next season.
MSU junior quarterback Kirk Cousins, along with 111 other college football players, was nominated to be a part of the 19th annual Allstate American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team.
When Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany welcomed Nebraska as the conference’s 12th member June 11, he also said a conference championship game soon would be in the works. The game would not be played until the 2011 season, as Nebraska doesn’t officially join the conference until then, but as possible locations for the game are being discussed, here are my top five options for the Big Ten Championship.
The All-Star break has come and gone, and four games into the second half of the season, it already appears the Detroit Tigers are continuing a familiar trend of falling in the second half of the season. But 2010 is a new year, and although the Tigers lost their first four games after the break to the woeful Cleveland Indians, they still are within striking distance of the first-place Chicago White Sox with plenty of baseball to be played. If Detroit hopes to reverse its post-All-Star break woes, here are three things that need to happen.
The MSU volleyball team, which typically plays at Jenison Fieldhouse, will host a series of matches at Breslin Center in 2010 for the third consecutive season.
In Jason Richardson’s nine years in the NBA, he has played for three different teams and three different cities. At every stop along the way, Richardson has been involved in the community, donating his time and money to his own charity, the Jason Richardson Foundation, and others in those cities. But when the former MSU standout returned to Michigan for the annual Jason Richardson Golf Classic on Wednesday, which benefited the United Way of Saginaw County, he said he hasn’t forgotten where he came from.
College football fans still have a little less than two months before the 2010 season kicks off. As the first game draws closer, the excitement becomes increasingly more difficult to contain. Fortunately, for those of us who can’t wait for some college football action, EA Sports NCAA Football 11 should adequately fill the void in the meantime.
Although Holland put together the most impressive run in the tournament, the talent always existed on the Spanish side. Spain had some struggles early on in the tournament, but the talented squad was able to put it all together when it counted. They didn’t win any game overwhelmingly despite their loaded roster, but they won, and isn’t that all that counts?
During the summer, MSU students still in East Lansing have a variety of different opportunities presented to them than they might find throughout the regular school year. Lighter class loads and warmer temperatures give students more time to enjoy the outdoors, including East Lansing’s surrounding golf courses, which are in prime form.
When the Netherlands meets Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final, it will guarantee one thing: the first European champion when the World Cup is played on a continent other than Europe.
Choosing to forego his senior season with the MSU hockey team, junior forward Corey Tropp has signed a three-year entry-level contract with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, MSU announced Tuesday.