Hlas: MSU-Iowa is clash of similar cultures

Michigan State's football team, like Iowa's, isn't too concerned with what the masses want.

The Spartans receive only the third-most attention in their own division behind Ohio State and Michigan. Undoubtedly, more people around America like or enjoy disliking those two teams more than Michigan State.

But if MSU ever gets bruised feelings about that, it just takes them out on opponents. Thus, the Spartans are playing the Hawkeyes Saturday night for the Big Ten title and a near-certain College Football playoff spot, while the Buckeyes and Wolverines are not.

On the night when it was put up or shut up for Michigan State and Ohio State, the Spartans shut down the then-No. 1 Buckeyes in Columbus. Holding OSU to 132 yards and five first-downs last weekend was weird, wild stuff in MSU's 17-14 upset.

Mark Dantonio's crew was then tasked with beating Penn State at home Saturday to claim the East's berth in Indianapolis, and did so with bulldozing authority, 55-16.

That set up a Michigan State-Iowa, winner-takes-all clash that promises to be bone-rattling. Physicality, fundamentals, and strong quarterback play get checked off in the columns of both teams. Iowa and MSU are the Big Ten's two top teams in turnover-margin. The quarterbacks, Connor Cook of Michigan State and C.J. Beathard of the Hawkeyes, have to be the first-team and second-team All-Big Ten quarterbacks, in no particular order.

Iowa did what Michigan State didn't, which is win at Nebraska. But the Spartans have seven victories over teams that finished the regular-season with winning records compared to Iowa's four. Both had their fair share of tight games. With the exception of MSU's 39-38 loss in Lincoln, both held off every challenge.

Oddly, Michigan State may be the most undervalued program in college football. This is the program's fifth season of 11-plus wins in the last six. The Spartans have won four straight bowls. They beat No. 5 Stanford in the Rose Bowl two seasons ago, then had a huge fourth-quarter rally to upend No. 4 Baylor in last season's Cotton Bowl. Cook was the quarterback in both triumphs.

Yet, you don't often hear Michigan State mentioned as one of the nation's premier programs. MSU's reaction is to continue winning.

Cook is simply terrific. The NFL team that drafts him should have its executives patting each other on the back in their war room after their selection is made. He not only has superb mechanics, he's a big-game player.

But Beathard is 13-0 as a starter. He, too, doesn't wither from a challenge.

Two years ago, Dantonio's men downed Ohio State 34-24 in the Big Ten championship back when the Spartans were in the Legends Division. He is the only Big Ten coach who has beaten Ohio State in Urban Meyer's four years in Columbus, and he has done it twice.

None of this is bad for Iowa. If the Hawkeyes win Saturday in Lucas Oil Stadium, it will come against the best team the Hawkeyes have faced, a squad no one can deny is top-shelf.

If you knock off the Spartans, you kick down the front door on your way into the playoffs.