Prepare for Rose Bowl.

A couple of months ago, I took my family to the dentist. Being a good Spartan, the dentist in question has MSU memorabilia up all over the office, including a matted and framed blimp shot of the 1988 Rose Bowl. Exactly as above, but with “MSU” and “USC” in the end zones.

My five-year-old son looked up at the picture and said, “Dad, is that Spartan Stadium?” “No,” I answered, “that is the Rose Bowl.” I blanketed the words with velvet reverence.

“But, it says ‘MSU’!”

“Yes,” I explained, “they paint the end zones for the schools playing the Rose Bowl game that year. You see, the Rose Bowl is a game played between the champion of the Big Ten and the Pac-10 every year, except . . . well, uh, sort of. Mostly. Yes, mostly.”

He asked, “Is that from this year?” I grinned wryly. “Heh, no, that’s a picture from 1988, the last year Michigan State played in the Rose Bowl. I was seven years old then, same as your big sister is now.”

Oh my God.

OH MY GOD.

Since the Spartans last went to the Rose Bowl, I grew up and went to MSU and got married and had a kid and now that kid is as old as I was when the Spartans last went to the Rose Bowl.

I felt no pain at the dentist that day. Nothing could sting quite like the realization that for all the big wins and star players to come out of Michigan State since I became self aware, they’ve spent almost the entire time failing to get anywhere near Pasadena. USC has gone to the Rose Bowl EIGHT TIMES SINCE THEN. Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern and freaking Wazzou have all been to the Grandaddy of Them All more recently than Michigan State.

You know who started the 1988 Rose Bowl for USC? Rodney Peete. Rodney Peete, who finished second in Heisman voting to Barry Sanders, got drafted by the Lions in the 6th round, was immediately installed as the starter (!), and had a sixteen-year career in the NFL which ended seven years ago.

Rodney Peete! Tecmo Super Bowl!

Last year the Spartans won the Big Ten Championship, or whatever passes for it these days. By traditional rules, that would have ended the interminable Rose Bowl drought, but no. Wisconsin, a team they beat soundly during the regular season, had collected more Starbits or something and so Michigan State had to go the Capital One Bowl and suffer a loss so spectacular that the clothing line bearing the #BEATEMDOWN hashtag it spawned still sells like hotcakes.

The Rose Bowl was first played in 1901, nine months before the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt. It’s been played 97 times since then, twenty times more than any other bowl. It is the bowl game that is the reason bowl games are called ‘bowl games.’ But these are Modern Times and so in order for the best team from the Big Ten to go to the Rose Bowl as has been done since my Grandfather was like negative thirty, Michigan State must beat a team it already beat this year in a big fake money grab perpetrated by profiteering gasbags who miss no opportunity to ‘brand’ themselves with tradition they stomp all over while selling out to the highest bidder, or really any available bidder.

So be it.

Wisconsin, I’m sorry. You guys have a real cool program and a real good team and I dig that thing you do when you all jump around until your stadium exhibits signs of imminent structural failure. But this is bigger than you. It’s a mission, a duty, a crusade to win back the prestige and heritage of Biggie and Duffy and every All-American who’s worn the only colors. The Spartans have won 21 games in two seasons and we aren’t going to the Capital One, Outback, or heaven-help-us Alamo Bowl again. This game means nothing to you, and it means everything to us.

Spartans, #P4RB.

The Alternative Bowl Picture For Michigan State

I had originally intended to sit down and draw up the alternate Bowl scenarios for Michigan State should they lose this weekend in the Big Ten Title Game this weekend. I had a careful comparison planned to describe what happens to teams who lose their championship game and which bowl they typically fall in as it relates to their conference tie-ins. I was even going to go on and dissect that by what happens if each conference gets two BCS teams in vs. one. I still could, it'd only take forty-five minutes to write up.

But you know what? Screw that.

Michigan State football sucked from 2000 until about 2006 and if we're being completely honest it was pretty damn tepid from 1990 to 2000 with one very good year in 1999. This means up until the arrival of Mark Dantonio, MSU fans were treated to a steady diet of beating teams they shouldn't dream of beating and losing to just godawful teams and having their hearts ripped out after losing games in the last three minutes.

Yesterday, was Mark Dantonio's fifth anniversary with Michigan State. That's been lost in all the hubbub this week. When he came to East Lansing, he talked about toughness, execution and winning. When he teed off on Mike Hart after losing to Michigan, he came across as a sore loser and a bit of a jerk. Honestly, he still comes off as a bit of a jerk sometimes. And I'm ok with that. Leading is a lonely task. It's thankless, tiring and never complete. A team can always improve and so can the leaders. Sometimes to be an effective leader, you have to be a bit of a jerk.

That's why I'm going to say, I don't care what the alternative bowl picture is for Michigan State. They've gone 21-3 in their last 24 regular season games. That's more games than John L Smith won in his four years at MSU. Mark Dantonio's gone 14-2 in his last two Big Ten seasons, that ties the number of regular season wins Bobby Williams had. For Mark Dantonio, this is about going to and winning the Rose Bowl. You get the sense listening to him that this is the goal because that's what college football coaches are paid to do, go to important bowl games.

I assure you Mark Dantonio does not give a damn about what happens if we lose on Saturday. After what he's done for this program in five short years, I choose to honor that attitude. Our road to the Rose Bowl goes through Indianapolis this Saturday. An outcome other than winning has probably not crossed Dantonio's mind, I don't intend to let it cross mine either.