Michigan State is about as well-respected as a team can be with two losses and zero signature wins, but is it the best team? It's that latter part of the previous sentence with which raises some red flags.
Michigan State is extremely good, but the best? No, I don't think so.
ESPN's Ed Cunningham, however, blew right through that tollbooth. From Freep.com's Joe Rexrode:
But Cunningham also didn't hold back his praise of the No. 7 Spartans (10-2) when asked on ESPN Radio's "SVP & Russillo" show Wednesday to name the best team in college football this season.
"It sounds crazy -- Michigan State," Cunningham said. "If you take three quarters out of that season – and those are big quarters, right? – fourth quarter against Oregon, two quarters, the second half against Ohio State, I thought through and through, offensively they're so much more dynamic than people think they are. They run the spread 30-40% of the time, which is something you'd never think of at Michigan State. I think they've grown.
"To me, that's a program, if every year you had to pick a team that could win a championship, I'd bet on them. But for me, saw them twice so I got to study them a bunch, other than those three quarters, the best team I saw."
Well, Ed got one part right: It does sound crazy, but it sounds crazy because it is crazy. How far down the crazy well did Cunningham fall? He's using arguments like "they run the spread 30-40%." In terms of arguing about the best in the sport, Cunningham brought a Bic pen to a bazooka fight.
