They’re losing their minds in East Lansing about Michigan, which tracks just about how you’d think.
It’s not Michigan or the NCAA or former coach Mel Tucker — it’s on their very own university.
First, the particulars: the NCAA on Wednesday placed Michigan State on probation for jaywalking, nearly three months to the day after allowing Michigan to get away with stone, cold murder.
The Spartans were forced to vacate 14 wins from 2022-24, while the Wolverines were allowed to keep their national title. A blatant protection of the blue blood university, and an obvious takedown of little brother.
But understand this: if Michigan State truly wanted to fight for the vacated wins or the elimination of other recruiting sanctions, it would’ve come out swinging and the NCAA would’ve backed down.
Instead, it allowed those brilliant enforcement tacticians at the NCAA run roughshod for roughly $11,000 in illegal benefits.
It is here where we reintroduce Tucker, the fired and publicly disgraced $95 million mistake whose staff committed the violations that led to the NCAA sheriff bowing up on Sparty.
This seems like a good time to remind everyone that Tucker is suing Michigan State — not once, but twice — for tens of millions of dollars.
Also seems appropriate to explain that Tucker threatened in April to sue the school if it didn’t pay for his legal defense in a lawsuit brought against him by Brenda Tracy, a prominent advocate for abuse survivors.
It was Tracy whose sexual harassment complaint against Tucker led to Michigan State firing Tucker, which led to Tucker’s first lawsuit against Michigan State for running an “improper, biased and sham investigation” designed to fire him after Tracy’s accusations — which he denies.
There, got all that?
This has nothing to do with Michigan, everyone. It has everything to do with Michigan State doing everything in its power to make Tucker look worse than he already does in an effort to avoid paying more than it should in either of two lawsuits. Or anything at all.
If you don’t think Michigan State invited the NCAA fox into the henhouse on purpose, with the sole intent of making Tucker look as bad as he possibly could down the road in potential litigation (or in mediation to settle out of court), you’re the same person who thinks Jim Harbaugh knew nothing about Conner Stations’ advanced scouting scheme.
If you don’t think Michigan State was wildly ticked off in April when Tucker demanded the university pay for his legal defense for an alleged problem of his own making, and wanted to take it out on him by proxy with the NCAA, you’re the same person who thinks everybody steals signals and the NCAA had it in for Michigan.
This is where we are after three Michigan State staffers under Tucker offered $10,764 in impermissible benefits — prior to the advent of NIL in college sports — to six prospects and their families so they could make unofficial visits. The NCAA also declared that Tucker ran his NFL style program “without sufficient oversight and engagement by the head coach.”
I’m going to say this one more time: there’s no chance in hell Harbaugh — a meticulous megalomaniac of a head coach — didn’t know about Stalions and his scheme. Do you really think Harbaugh would allow some flunky on his sideline, screaming at his coordinators to change play calls after he identifies signals, and not know every single thing about it?
So yeah, they’re grinding their gears in East Lansing. They can’t even cheat as well as Michigan.
Or more to the point: they can’t get the same breaks Michigan gets when it cheats. Of course, Michigan will point to its $30 million fine by the NCAA, compared to Michigan State’s $30,000 fine.
But that ridiculous Michigan fine by the NCAA was in exchange for not vacating wins. You know, the penalty the governing body typically uses for infraction cases where players are ineligible — or when schools gain an competitive advantage by cheating.
Or exactly what it did to Michigan State for jaywalking.
The worst part of this mess, of the NCAA putting itself in an awkward enforcement position at the behest of Michigan State officials trying to throw more dirt at Tucker, is one of the 14 games vacated by the Spartans was the 31-7 victory over Central Michigan in the 2023 season opener.
The same Central Michigan that the NCAA placed on probation two weeks ago for allowing Stalions on their sideline during the season opener. The NCAA found that former Chippewas quarterbacks coach Jake Kostner gave Stalions school clothing and a sideline pass “to avoid detection.”
Stone, cold murder ― and caught red-handed. The NCAA was so mad at Michigan, it made Michigan State vacate wins.
Which tracks just about how you’d think.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.