Michigan State, Alabama Bound Historically Again

The Michigan State Spartans and Alabama Crimson Tide share membership to an exclusive club, and it is not the first time the two have been connected throughout history.

The Michigan State Spartans no longer hold exclusive rights to the football/basketball Final Four appearance in the same year. The Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team joined the club when it defeated Clemson 89-82 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

The Spartans earned the first leg of the title in 2015 when Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's No. 7 seed was carried by Branden Dawson, Travis Trice, and a budding Denzel Valentine to the Final Four, where it lost to the eventual national champion Duke. Later that year, it was former Michigan State football head coach Mark Dantonio's star-studded football squad -- led by quarterback Connor Cook, a talented offense, and a defense to die for -- beating reigning national champion Ohio State and outlasting Iowa to clinch a berth to the second-ever College Football Playoff. That run ended in a 38-0 beatdown by eventual national champion Alabama.

Now, the Crimson Tide have joined the club, albeit in reverse order. The Tide played in the College Football Playoff in former Alabama coach Nick Saban's final game with the program, a 27-20 overtime defeat in the Rose Bowl at the hands of eventual national champion Michigan. On the hardwood, Alabama is set to play a tough UConn squad looking to repeat as national champions in the Final Four.

Through the annals of college sport, the Spartans and Tide never fail to be linked.

One can go as far back as the halcyon days of Duffy Daugherty and Bear Bryant, both of whom are among the most revered men in college football history. The two legends led the dominant football powers of the 1960s and had to consistently contend with one another in the polls. In 1966, both schools had to settle for a shared national title thanks to Notre Dame's running of the clock in the "Game of the Century" that ended in a 10-10 tie between the No. 1 Fighting Irish and the No. 2 Spartans.

There is, too, plenty of fact and fiction about Daugherty's "Underground Railroad" and his alleged dealings with Bear Bryant.

Then, in 1995, first-year Saban was hired as Michigan State football's head coach and would remain at the helm until the end of the decade. In what would sting Spartan faithful for years to come, Saban unceremoniously departed East Lansing on a journey that would land him in Tuscaloosa in 2007 to become arguably the greatest coach in the history of college football. Saban would face Michigan State twice in his time at Alabama, winning handedly against the best of the Dantonio era in 2011 and 2015.

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