Michigan State's Mark Dantonio: Big Ten's TV appeal helps playoff bid
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio suggested that his team might get consideration from the college football playoff committee at the end of the season, not only because of their record but because of the Big Ten Conference’s television attraction.
The Spartans are ranked eighth this week and could possibly get into the four-game playoff if they win the remainder of its games. Of the team’s seven remaining regular season games, they play one (Ohio State on Nov. 8) that is currently ranked in the AP’s Top 25.
"If we do what we're supposed to do or what we're attempting to do and get in the [Big Ten championship game] and win that game, then I think good things are possible,” Dantonio said to the Detroit Free Press. “I think we turn on a lot of TV sets, and let's not be naïve. It's about who is watching the game, too. And so you've got a quarter of the country watching a football game. They want to see a football team from this part of the country in that game."
Dantonio didn’t think that his team lost style points by allowing Nebraska to score 19 unanswered points after building a 24-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter last Saturday.
“You can look around the country and ask four or five other teams how they feel this week,” he said. "So it's all about winning football games, because this gets forgotten.”
Dantonio was also asked about his defensive players clapping before the snap of the ball, disrupting the Nebraska offense.
"We have different ways we have to move that front. Some of that is in clapping, some of it is in all kinds of hand signals for us," he said.
Michigan State plays at Purdue (3-3) this Saturday. The Spartans have beaten Purdue five straight times.
- Scooby Axson
