Domer95
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The following, from a MSU grad, is the antithesis of the reasons to HATE scUM that I posted last week. While we can't 'like' an opponent, MSU does deserve respect, unlike scUM. That being said, I'd still love to see CW&Co lay about 60 on them to remind them not to plant that flag AGAIN EVER.
The topic was "Should the B-11 cut-off ND?"
"I'm an MSU grad who DOES understand and appreciate the history of our series, and frankly, your post does not make clear just how much MSU owes to Notre Dame - which is everything we have today.
Back when MSU was a little independant trying to expand its program to become "big time," we were pretty much stonewalled by the University of Michigan. They blackballed our admission into the Big 10 for what seems like forever, and if you could see our year-by-year football schedule, you'd see that we played AT Michigan for about, oh, forty straight years! (small wonder the series won-loss advantage leans heavily in U-M's favor, huh?)
Michigan State more or less approached ND on its knees to play football every season. At the time, there was no Spartan Stadium as we know it today. Macklin Field (its previous name) was very small; it was FAR smaller indeed than Notre Dame Stadium was. MSU would have taken a 2-1 home-away split or even worse than that in order to induce Notre Dame to play us. But the Fathers that ran the school did not want to take advantage of our comparatively weak bargaining position, and instead proposed to MSU (then named Michigan State College, of course) that we play home and away evenly each season.
With this guaranteed home date in our back pocket, MSU was able to justify our own stadium expansion. The annual series with ND also gave us a kind of national appeal and benefitted the school in more ways than can be mentioned, not the least of which was financial. In effect that one series made Michigan State football "big time."
When Chicago left the Big 10 - thanks in no small part to WWII and the Manhattan Project research that was going on in labs underneath their football stadium - Michigan State was the natural choice to become the new Big 10 member.
Michigan finally saw the writing on the wall and realized they could no longer block our admission to the league. In what must be the all-time crowning example of chutzpah, Michigan actually was the school that proposed MSU's admission to the Big 10! And I won't even get into how U-M deliberately flooded the visitors' dressing room with raw sewage on MSU's first visit to Ann Arbor as a member of the Big 10.
Bastards! Ah, but I digress.
Have there been some rocky times between MSU and ND? Sure there have. But overall, the series is a warm one and knowledgable MSU fans (and hopefully, Notre Dame fans) appreciate this series for its longevity, cordiality, and, yes, good ball games that have been played over the years.
No, I don't expect current students to understand the history of the game. Hell, a lot of them don't even know anything about our nation's history, to say nothing of the history of their university. And the famous "subway alumni" of Notre Dame probably aren't too interested in the history of the MSU series, either. But those of us with a little appreciation for history and who love football and our alma maters do understand all this.
I know that contracts currently exist only for another five years or so. More than anything, I hope that we get another extension - hopefully for a decade or more.
(Now, if only we could get the game moved to the last game of the season, it would be PERFECT. Let USC play UCLA while we play each other to end the season in late November. It wouldn't get any better than that!)
And by the way, not only did U-M keep ND out of the Big 10, they also wouldn't even play the Irish because the Michigan administration was actually afraid that Catholic students at U-M would cheer for Notre Dame instead of for their own school!
If I didn't mention it already, I'll add only this: "f*** Michigan."
Here's to a great game on Saturday".
The topic was "Should the B-11 cut-off ND?"
"I'm an MSU grad who DOES understand and appreciate the history of our series, and frankly, your post does not make clear just how much MSU owes to Notre Dame - which is everything we have today.
Back when MSU was a little independant trying to expand its program to become "big time," we were pretty much stonewalled by the University of Michigan. They blackballed our admission into the Big 10 for what seems like forever, and if you could see our year-by-year football schedule, you'd see that we played AT Michigan for about, oh, forty straight years! (small wonder the series won-loss advantage leans heavily in U-M's favor, huh?)
Michigan State more or less approached ND on its knees to play football every season. At the time, there was no Spartan Stadium as we know it today. Macklin Field (its previous name) was very small; it was FAR smaller indeed than Notre Dame Stadium was. MSU would have taken a 2-1 home-away split or even worse than that in order to induce Notre Dame to play us. But the Fathers that ran the school did not want to take advantage of our comparatively weak bargaining position, and instead proposed to MSU (then named Michigan State College, of course) that we play home and away evenly each season.
With this guaranteed home date in our back pocket, MSU was able to justify our own stadium expansion. The annual series with ND also gave us a kind of national appeal and benefitted the school in more ways than can be mentioned, not the least of which was financial. In effect that one series made Michigan State football "big time."
When Chicago left the Big 10 - thanks in no small part to WWII and the Manhattan Project research that was going on in labs underneath their football stadium - Michigan State was the natural choice to become the new Big 10 member.
Michigan finally saw the writing on the wall and realized they could no longer block our admission to the league. In what must be the all-time crowning example of chutzpah, Michigan actually was the school that proposed MSU's admission to the Big 10! And I won't even get into how U-M deliberately flooded the visitors' dressing room with raw sewage on MSU's first visit to Ann Arbor as a member of the Big 10.
Bastards! Ah, but I digress.
Have there been some rocky times between MSU and ND? Sure there have. But overall, the series is a warm one and knowledgable MSU fans (and hopefully, Notre Dame fans) appreciate this series for its longevity, cordiality, and, yes, good ball games that have been played over the years.
No, I don't expect current students to understand the history of the game. Hell, a lot of them don't even know anything about our nation's history, to say nothing of the history of their university. And the famous "subway alumni" of Notre Dame probably aren't too interested in the history of the MSU series, either. But those of us with a little appreciation for history and who love football and our alma maters do understand all this.
I know that contracts currently exist only for another five years or so. More than anything, I hope that we get another extension - hopefully for a decade or more.
(Now, if only we could get the game moved to the last game of the season, it would be PERFECT. Let USC play UCLA while we play each other to end the season in late November. It wouldn't get any better than that!)
And by the way, not only did U-M keep ND out of the Big 10, they also wouldn't even play the Irish because the Michigan administration was actually afraid that Catholic students at U-M would cheer for Notre Dame instead of for their own school!
If I didn't mention it already, I'll add only this: "f*** Michigan."
Here's to a great game on Saturday".
