Michigan State exposed

It was predictable. The train wreck waiting to happen -- Michigan State football -- finally did.

The Spartans were absolutely humbled at Ohio State. Over a six touchdown differential of eating some serious crow. Yet this should have come as no surprise to football fans paying attention to what led up to it.

Like most other major conference teams, MSU started off the season with a couple patsies.

But then Notre Dame came to East Lansing and thrashed the Spartans by 20 points. An anomaly? Perhaps, but also maybe an omen of what was to come. The Fighting Irish are pretty good this year.

After that debacle, MSU won close games over the likes of unranked Iowa and the always over-ranked and over-hyped Michigan. (The Wolverines had again been thoroughly exposed as pretenders rather than contenders. Nothing new there).

Then a couple other rather narrow victories over Minnesota and Indiana. Wins, but hardly impressive over typical Big 10 -- or is that 14? -- can't they count? --doormats.

The loss in overtime to Northwestern should have raised a few skeptical eyebrows, but any such thoughts among the Sparty faithful were quickly put to rest with their narrow victory over a then highly regarded team like Penn State. The green and white bandwagon was back in full swing.

Meanwhile, Ohio State, a perennial power, and even more so since Urban Meyer came aboard as head coach, was getting throttled at Iowa. That wasn't supposed to happen.

So do the math. The young Spartans were getting a bit full of themselves. And the Buckeyes were flat-out pi$$ed, wanting to come out and make a statement in their next game.

Which just happened to be MSU visiting the horseshoe in Columbus.

Bang. Try a 48-3 beatdown. Against MSU's supposedly stout defense, OSU ran for over 330 yards alone. The Buckeyes were having the proverbial field day marching up and down the field against the hapless Spartans. If not for a couple of dropped should have been interceptions by OSU's defensive backs, OSU might have hung SIXTY points on them. And the Spartans could only manage a meager THREE?

To be sure, Michigan State, like their cross-state rival Michigan, will wind up going to a bowl somewhere around the first of the year. But it will be of the second tier variety. Because neither is anywhere near worthy of being considered as any sort of national contender. This is what happens when the college football world has diluted the bowls to the point of a team only needing six wins to qualify and play in one. It's all about TV, advertisement bucks, more talking heads -- see money grab.

And given MSU's last couple regular season games against bottom feeders such as Maryland and Rutgers, they'll probably rack up a couple more wins. Sparty nation will be thumping their chests once again.

But it's been smoke, mirrors and hype all along.

Scroll back up and re-read the opening sentence of this post.

And it has come to pass indeed.

Exposed.