Sorry Sparty, There Can’t Be Any Tobacco Road

After Michigan’s win against Michigan State last week in Ann Arbor there is growing belief that Michigan and Michigan State can create the Duke v. North Carolina rivalry in Michigan.  Sorry to say, I don’t believe there is much of a chance that both team will or can be long term “powers” in the same region.

I firmly believe that both schools can be good but not top ten national powers consistently at the same time.  It isn’t a coincidence that Michigan State’s football and basketball programs rose to power in the State of Michigan on the backs of a disastrous basketball scandal and an ill-advised football coaching hire.

All things being equal, and usually they aren’t, Michigan will always win the recruiting battle.  The brand is too large and the fan base too fanatical in the State of Michigan for MSU to have any long term dominance.  Most MSU fans are alumni and that simply won’t translate into long term, sustained success for the Spartans.

MSU won’t fall to the back of the pack anytime soon as they have a top basketball coach and a strong head football coach, but it is pretty apparent that Hoke and Beilein have stopped the Spartan run and are now in the process of returning Michigan to the top of the heap in-state.

Brady Hoke is hauling in a top 5 recruiting class in 2012 and John Beilein just scored the top high school Power Forward in American along with a top 5 consensus class.  Michigan is out-recruiting MSU and that simply shouldn't happen with the disarray that has been Michigan's football and basketball programs recently.

It will be more interesting between MSU and Michigan, but the MSU run is over.

Below is the conference recruiting ranking for Michigan and Michigan State in 2012.

Rank	School	Total	Five-starCommits	Four-starCommits	Three-starCommits	Avg Stars
#1	Ohio State	24	2	14	8	3.75
#2	Michigan	23	2	9	12	3.57
#3	Nebraska	14	0	5	9	3.36
#4	Purdue	25	0	2	21	3.00
#5	Michigan State	17	0	3	14	3.18

2012 Big Ten Basketball Recruiting Classes Rank

BEST OF THE BIG TEN

Ranking the classes (national rank)

1. Indiana (2) 2. Michigan (5) 3. Michigan State (11)  4. Purdue (23) 5. Iowa 6. Wisconsin 7. Northwestern 8. Nebraska 9. Minnesota 10. Penn State 11. Illinois  12. Ohio State