When Football Powers Stay in State, Everyone Wins

History will be made on Saturday, when the Michigan State University Spartans travel to Kelly Shorts Stadium for an away game versus THE Central Michigan University. While it is not uncommon for the Big Ten and the MAC to play each other occasionally, quite the opposite, actually, this game will be different. Michigan State has realized the importance of spreading the wealth to football programs in the state not named U of M and not on the banks of the Red Cedar, and has structured a deal to play away games at the stadiums of several MAC teams in the next few seasons, including CMU this year and EMU within the next few seasons.

While some may criticize this deal as accepting charity, I believe it is remiss to view it as anything less than helpful to everyone involved. By returning more money back into the schools in Michigan that are dwarfed by the Spartans, they assure themselves a more competitive football atmosphere locally as well as gaining more respect on a national level. I'm so impressed by the forward thinking sports administration at State for thinking this deal up that win or lose, I respect MSU immensely. In todays' college football scene, every decision is driven single handedly by money and the desire to win, and for a perennial powerhouse school to stop and pay it forward to a smaller (not lesser) program shows a maturity and selflessness that should be embodied more often in collegiate athletics.

With the additional revenue from this game on Saturday, which is expected to be at full capacity in every sense of the word, and the thousands of dollars that will be pumped into the local businesses surrounding the stadium, Michigan State has assured our CMU football program a better outlook for the future, and in what is shaping up to be an exciting in state rivalry will be all the more exciting when the two schools have the maturity and forward thinking to help each other out.

That being said, you will find me in that student section on saturday cheering as loudly as I can for a repeat of my freshman year, when we took down the Spartans in a neck and neck game. I hope that stadium is loud as hell, I hope every Chippewa is proud as hell, and I hope it is a damn good game.

FIRE UP CHIPS.