Michigan State football had Big Ten's second-most dominant Week 1 win

A 23-6 win over Western Michigan hardly qualifies as "dominant" but it was convincing, and it did show that Michigan State football was clearly the better team as the game was never in doubt.

Yet that didn't stop the 17-point win from drawing criticism from rival fans (only to watch their team struggle even more the following day). The metrics, however, were very high on the Spartans in their 23-6 win over Western Michigan, even ranking it the second-most dominant win by a Big Ten team vs. an FBS opponent in Week 1.

Don't believe me? Just look at this graph by @statsowar on Twitter. It shows that USC was the only Big Ten team to have a more dominant win vs. an FBS opponent last weekend.

Obviously when you score 73 points and win by 60 like USC did, it accounts for the most dominant win in college football. Is it a bit of a loophole since this was Missouri State's first game as an FBS program? Maybe, but it still counts.

Michigan State had the seventh-most dominant win in the country against an FBS opponent in Week 1, according to this metric which is determined by net success rate.

What is net success rate? According to @statsowar, "All net success rate does is strip out some noise and present a view of how two teams compared in the down-to-down business of moving the football. Games are won and lost with explosives, special teams, turnovers, etc, and looking at net success rate just shows us how close the margins were."

Basically, net success rate strips the game down and determines how successful a team is by how they move the ball, explosive plays, special teams, turnovers, and other simple factors. Looking at the rate shows just how close the game really was.

And Michigan State vs. Western Michigan was never close.

Now the Spartans head into a Week 2 battle against Boston College who faced an FCS team in the opening week and won by 56. Don't expect a top-10 most-dominant win this week.