College basketball fans will be gleefully tuning into one of the biggest games of the 2025-26 season on Friday night, but some Michigan State faithful won’t be too pleased with the broadcast team.
According to the broadcast schedule, Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery will be on the call on Friday night from the Breslin Center is what is expected to be an electric atmosphere. The latter name is one that all college basketball fans love listening to, but Gus draws a bit of a different reaction from Spartan fans.
While most college basketball fans don’t see the issue with Johnson calling the Michigan vs. Michigan State game, Spartan fans can explain: he’s a Michigan fan.
OK, so he may not openly root for Michigan, but he has stated that he’s been watching the Wolverines since he was a kid. He’s been brought in to speak to Michigan teams in the past, he is a self-admitted Wolverine fan, and that’s the last thing Michigan State fans want to hear when they turn the TV on to watch the biggest game of the season against their hated rival.
Don’t believe me? Take this interaction between Gus and Ohio State alum Jim Jackson a couple of years ago while calling a Michigan basketball game, for instance. He was gifted a Michigan football national title swag bag, and he showed it off on camera, saying he’s from Michigan so he can root for Michigan. Those are the types of things that Spartan fans have had an adverse reaction to.
So having him call the Michigan vs. Michigan State game which might just be the biggest Big Ten showdown of the season feels like a conflict of interest.
Gus Johnson used to be a fan favorite
I will admit, when I was in college, I loved when Gus Johnson would call a State game. He had energy, he was full of incredible one-liners, and he never showed a bias. Unfortunately, his one-liners have fallen off a bit, and his bias is clearly on the side of the Wolverines.
No, he’s not going to openly root for Michigan on Friday — that would be insane — but he will be talking more about Wolverine football than anyone in the green and white would care for.
Gus is a good dude, he’s a talented broadcaster, and he has a knack for calling the big play (although he did malfunction during Indiana’s win over Penn State football this year). But he shouldn’t be calling the Michigan vs. Michigan State game.
I would’ve actually loved if Robbie Hummel was on the call on Friday.
I’m going to assume there will be a lot of mute buttons smashed at around 8 p.m. on Friday.