The disrespect that Tom Izzo and Michigan State basketball get on almost a yearly basis at this point needs to be studied.
The Spartans had fallen on hard times post-Cassius Winston and until Jeremy Fears’ redshirt freshman season. They bounced back with Fears running the offense and Jase Richardson and Jaden Akins also chipped into that. When the latter two left, a drop-off was expected, but Michigan State was almost as good, making a Sweet 16 during a 27-8 season.
Michigan State isn’t losing much from that team that just went 27-8, finished in the top four of a loaded Big Ten, and was a play or two away from another Elite Eight.
Many experts are high on the Spartans, but one media outlet has just given Michigan State some bulletin board material. CBS Sports released its latest NCAA Tournament bracketology “model” and the Spartans didn’t appear where they honestly belong before the season begins: on the No. 1 or No. 2 seed lines.
CBS doesn’t think Michigan State is one of the eight best teams in the country.
With college basketball rosters mostly set, here's how the CBS Sports Bracketology model sizes things up as of June. pic.twitter.com/v88kZxFDIl
— David Cobb (@DavidWCobb) June 18, 2026
Absurd, right?
I can see how Duke, Florida, UConn, Illinois, Michigan, and Arizona are all up there, but Michigan State has a legitimate gripe here. The Spartans should probably be ahead of Illinois, Houston, Arizona, and Gonzaga. Obviously I’m a little biased, but I haven’t seen any rankings after the Jeremy Fears decision with Michigan State lower than No. 8.
Believing that a 27-8 team that returns essentially everyone but Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler and brings in a top-five recruiting class, a 7-foot-2 transfer center, and a 2025 class transfer that missed the entire 2025-26 season with an injury on top of bringing back Fears and Coen Carr won’t be a top eight team in the country this year is just misinformed.
Could it happen? Of course. But before anything plays out, this is easily a top eight team on paper.
This Michigan State team probably needs the fuel
Tom Izzo may have paid CBS to leave Michigan State out of the top two seeds in their bracketology just for the adversity storyline. I’m only half kidding, but this is something that Izzo doesn’t really mind.
Oftentimes we’ll hear Izzo calling his team “fat and sassy” when they lose after a long winning streak or call them out for “reading their own newspaper clippings” when they play poorly against teams that they should handle, so this might be the kind of story he’s OK with.
Still, having a team with the projected starting five and bench that Michigan State has with the perfect blend of experience and youthful energy outside of the top eight teams in the country is insane.
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