I would say that given the success the last three years it's not an exception anymore. Now if those seasons were spread out and not grouped together I would agree.
In a normal three-year stretch, I'd agree. In a three-year stretch in which UM devolves into a tire fire, Ohio State switches coaches and hires a heavily medicated Urban Meyer under a bowl ban, and the rest of the Big Ten struggles to beat MAC teams, the bar isn't very high for MSU. These few years have also been accompanied by a serious watering down of the MSU schedule. Case in point, they lost to the only non-conference opponent this year that wasn't a glorified scrimmage on their schedule.
Don't get me wrong...despite their spoiler tendencies against ND over the years, I've always had a soft spot for the Spartans. Sure, they can be annoying at times, just like any other fan base, but East Lansing is a great place to live and they're not all elitist dickwads like their big brother down the road (who, continuing that analogy, would seem to be content unemployed and living in their mother's basement while little brother makes something of himself). I would be thrilled to see the base of power shift from Ann Arbor to East Lansing for a generation or two.
