NCAA Football michigan state Spartans

It's barely spring here in the Midwest but spring football is well under way, and there's abundant intrigue in the Big Ten conference. Coming off what seems like the 46th consecutive disappointing bowl season, including a Rose Bowl where Penn State's Daryll Clark (right) did his best but the Nittany Lions still couldn't beat Southern Cal, nobody will be expecting much from the conference or its teams when fall rolls around. Somebody has to win it, however, and now is when the jockeying for position really begins.

Back in October, there were two incidents involving college football players beating up hockey players from the same campus. The first happened at Michigan, and then there was another fight at Michigan State.

Those responsible for the Michigan State donnybrook include freshman running back and kick returner Glenn Winston. He has been suspended by the team after pleading guilty to assault charges.

Signing day has come and (nearly) gone, filled with celebration and upheaval. Sort of like life. We're here to parse what can be parsed and detail the recruiting classes that were for the major conferences.

While recruiting services Scout and Rivals differ widely in their overall assessments of this year's Big Ten recruiting classes, they're both impressed by many of the same things. Of course, they're also unimpressed by many of the same things.

But hey, you're a smart person. You can figure things out for yourself. You want to know who helped themselves. You want to know who shot themselves in the foot. You want to know if the talent-rich got richer, like Michigan did with defensive end Craig Roh (pictured). Make the jump, grasshopper; all will be revealed.

FanHouse's lead-up to college football's signing day makes like Charles Dickens and looks at the Ghosts of Recruiting -- past, present and future. In the Ghosts of Recruiting Past we note 10 recruiting powers who have hit a dry spell

Completing Part I of our Ghosts of Recruiting series, we discuss the changed recruiting fortunes of Virginia and Michigan State. Like several schools mentioned here, both have been at various times elite programs but certainly not of the level achieved by an Oklahoma or a USC or a Michigan, the so-called traditional powers. Prospects aren't quite Syracuse-level glum for both, but they aren't exactly their old selves either.

Last we saw John L. Smith, he was stringing together a series of Jim Mora-like moments, hyperventilating and face-slapping his way out of the Michigan State head coaching job. After the inevitable time away, he's back in college football as a low-level assistant for Bobby Petrino at Arkansas. Smith will coach the Hogs' special teams.

The guy is wound a little tight, but he was no slouch as a head coach at both Louisville and Michigan State and, this being America, he's likely saved enough face at this point to move back among the ranks. What could go wrong? Crazy things, that's what. We'll relive the insanity after the jump.

Michigan State running back Javon Ringer had a monster senior season for the Spartans -- but one of the concerns throughout the season was that coach Mark Dantonio was running his star into the ground by giving him approximately 400 carries a game.

It's not a huge surprise, then, that Ringer is dealing with injury concerns as he preps for the NFL Draft in April. Ringer had a slot reserved for him in Saturday's Senior Bowl, but had to withdraw.

Ringer accepted an invitation but pulled out this week. "We were told he had his knee scoped and would not be ready," said Kevin McDermond, Senior Bowl public relations director.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, smart guy. You're thinking this post should be one letter long, and that letter should be 'F.' It's true that the Big Ten did little to advance its reputation during the season, and even less during the postseason. In spite of it all, there are still a few diamonds among the, um, whatever else it is the diamonds are scattered among.

They're scattered among things like 35-3, a 1-6 bowl game record, the fall of the Michigan dynasty, a tragically unwarranted and completely unjustified preseason overrating, several regressions to the mean, and the worst sendoff since the last episode of "Seinfeld."

So we'll go through the league team by team, painful as that is, to build up the successes and try to understand the failures of Big Ten football in 2008. Yes, I used "success" and "Big Ten football" in the same sentence without the connecting phrase "lack of." Deal with it, Buck. Every team gets an overall grade and a quick look at its prognosis for the 2009 season. For you Big Ten fans, I promise you it's not all bad news; for you Big Ten haters, I promise you it's not all good.

With Ohio State's loss to Texas last night, the Big Ten finished the bowl season with a 1-6 record. We could offer up a lot of reasons for the Big Ten's lousy bowl record, but Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany told the Chicago Tribune after watching USC beat Penn State in the Rose Bowl that it's really quite simple:

"You look at it and ask: Did the players play hard, and were they prepared?" Delany asked. "Yes and yes. You know what? SC's a better football team. In all of the [bowl] games I've watched, I'm seeing us get beat by better teams.

"Then you say: Why is that? I don't have a great answer other than to say that these things tend to be cyclical."

So there you have it. Delany says the Big Ten teams are just getting beaten by better teams, and that's that.

And really, does anyone disagree? Texas is better than Ohio State. USC is better than Penn State. Georgia is better than Michigan State. Kansas is better than Minnesota. Missouri is better than Northwestern. Florida State is better than Wisconsin. Iowa is the one Big Ten team that won its bowl game because it's the one Big Ten team that drew an opponent (South Carolina) it should have beaten.

I don't have any grand solution to the problem of the Big Ten's bowl record (I'd love to see one of the BCS games relocate to Soldier Field, but somehow I don't see that happening), but I give Delany credit for accepting the simple fact that Big Ten teams are losing bowl games because they're not as good as their opponents.

1-5, with one game to go. One chance left to raise the conference's winning percentage to a mighty .285. And that chance rests on the less-than-broad shoulders of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Expecting the Buckeyes to show up in a big nonconference game is like expecting a bridge made out of meringue to hold up underneath a couple SUVs. It's just not something a sensible person would ever do.

It's not like anybody expected more of the Big Ten in this year's bowl games. Most folk expected the conference would be lucky to win one game and not only were they right, they were right about which game that would be. Iowa's 31-10 slashing of South Carolina is about the only thing the conference can be proud of.

Yes, Penn State had a good second half against USC. Wahoo! They almost came back against college football's laziest elite program! There's something to hang your hat on. Look at the rest of the games, if you dare. You can be a little proud of Northwestern for giving Missouri more fight than anyone expected, but there's a big fat load of Florida State 42, Wisconsin 13 festering out back, waiting for you. Crimony.

Turkey Legs to Go is FanHouse's complete travel guide for all of the 2008-2009 college bowl games. Here, we cover the Capitol One Bowl (Orlando, Florida), which pits Georgia against Michigan State.

Overview / Matchup: The Georgia Bulldogs' season, which began with national title aspirations, ends somewhat disappointingly in Orlando following a final week loss to rival Georgia Tech. Michigan State capped off a fairly surprising and successful season in a similar fashion, getting whipped by Big 10 opponent Penn State in the last week of the season, leaving both of these teams hungry to prove something in the postseason.

Hotels: Assuming most football fanatics would rather stay away from the sprawling Disney and Universal theme-parks, we've selected restaurants and hotels with good proximity to the stadium. However, if you decide to double up on your bowl-game weekend and pay a visit to the parks, there are myriad hotels and restaurants in the Lake Buena Vista area. That being said, the Grand Bohemian Orlando is the best bet for luxury accommodation downtown. If you can't afford downtown and you don't want Disney, the next best thing is close to the airport... with that in mind we recommend the Hyatt Regency Orlando Intl Airports. For the best proximity to the stadium (and the cheapest rates) stay at the Vacation Lodge downtown.