The pursuit of Tom Izzo’s second national title just got a nice boost on Wednesday night when Jeremy Fears Jr. announced his return to Michigan State.
After going through the draft process and getting an adequate amount of feedback, Fears decided to return for his junior season even thought he was tempted to follow his NBA dreams early. He made the smart decision to return given that he wasn’t projected to go in the first round in any mocks and he admitted throughout the process that a first-round grade is what it would take for him to leave.
With the return of Fears, Michigan State instantly becomes a top national title contender with one of the deepest rosters in the country.
Las Vegas agrees.
According to FanDuel, Michigan State has the eighth-best odds in college basketball to win the national title in 2027. There are two Big Ten teams ahead of Michigan State: Illinois and Michigan. The Illini aren’t too surprising considering they get overly hyped up every season. I do believe that the Illini will have their best team in quite some time in 2026-27, though. Michigan is an obvious favorite as the reigning national champion.
The Spartans should probably be somewhere in the top five in terms of title favorites, but they’re going to just have to prove people wrong once again.
Even Izzo’s most talented teams are disrespected.
Michigan State is going to be heavily tested in 2026-27
Only seven teams have better odds to win the national title next season than Michigan State: Florida, Duke, Michigan, UConn, Illinois, Louisville, and Houston. There are a couple of surprises ahead of the Spartans like Louisville and Houston, butlike I said, they’re just going to have to prove doubters wrong.
If several of those top seven teams caught your eye, it’s probably because you realized that Michigan State will be facing them this season.
Actually the Spartans are going to face four of the top seven title favorites next season as well as seven of the top 12.
Duke will be the Champions Classic matchup, Michigan is on the Big Ten schedule twice, UConn will come to East Lansing in the preseason, Illinois is another conference foe, Tennessee is a newly-scheduled matchup in Knoxville, and MSU will play Gonzaga in Palm Springs.
Michigan State is going to be facing over 50 percent of the top seven teams in the country this season and that just gives Izzo a chance to make some statements early. Imagine if Izzo beats UConn in the exhibition game, handles Duke in the Champions Classic, takes down Tennessee on the road, and beats Gonzaga in Palm Springs.
Everyone would be talking about Izzo’s second national title.
This team is going to be heavily tested in 2026-27.
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