Lots of transfer activity for the football team, scheduling news for the basketball team.
Hey everyone, welcome back from this unscheduled hiatus in TOC reporting. I was on the I.R. this past week with a nasty bout of Covid. Second time I have had it. I don’t know what variant we are onto these days, or if we are even still keeping track of that sort of thing, but this time around was much, much worse than when I had it around Christmas 2021 (Delta variant, I think, for you Covid historians). I still am dealing with some symptoms, but at least I am capable of staring at a computer screen now without incurring a massive headache. Hopefully, we can get through the rest of the offseason months with no more health interruptions.
Before we get into all the news, I just want to point out that it is graduation weekend in East Lansing. Congratulations to the Class of 2024. Do your university proud.
Now onto sports. There have been a few headlines coming out of East Lansing this past week, from both the gridiron and the hardwood. Let’s start with basketball, where the Big Ten has announced conference opponents for the 2024-25 season. This will be the first season with an 18-member Big Ten and the schedule will remain a 20-game slate. For those of you who have not already done the math in your head, that means playing every team once and only facing three teams a second time. Who else hates that as much as I do? The home-and-home was one of the things I liked about college hoops; I guess that is another item I have to say goodbye to, another thing the NCAA has ruined for me. I think I would almost prefer to not play every team each year so that we can have more conference opponents who we do get to contest twice.
For the 2024-25 season, the three teams we will see two times are Illinois, Minnesota, and um. We will play Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, Washington, and Wisconsin at home, and Iowa, Maryland, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers, UCLA, and USC on the road.
We also learned this past week that the MSU basketball team will be taking a trip to Spain in August. We know the trip will include stops in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. Dates of the trip and games to be played abroad are still unknown.
Lastly, we learned that former Spartan, and all-around great human being, Mady Sissoko is transferring to the University of California for his final season. All the best to The Mali Mauler. I bet we play the Bears in the first round of next year’s tournament.
Moving over to the football program, there has been some movement in the transfer portal. Pardon me while I rant momentarily; the portal is going to be the death of sports journalism. I am so tired of reporting on this, and it is just going to get worse with time. Here are the headlines coming from the football team:
- WR Antonio Gates Jr. has removed his name from the portal.
- DT Derrick Harmon is transferring to Oregon. MSU will be travelling to Eugene on October 5.
- DT Simeon Barrow is transferring to Miami (FL).
- OT Ethan Boyd is transferring to Colorado.
- Jared Mangham, Jaden Mangham, and Geno VanDeMark have left for the portal.
- Brandon Lane, the transfer from Stephen F. Austin who committed to MSU a week ago, has reopened his recruitment. Do you guys get why I can’t stand covering this stuff?
- Andrew Dennis, OL, is coming to MSU. He originally committed to the Spartans’ ‘24 class under Coach Tucker, then backed out when Tucker was fired. He did early enrollment at Illinois this spring, and then hit the portal this past Monday before recommitting to MSU yesterday. 247 Sports has him as the #14 IOL in this year’s class. Ridiculous, no?
- Ed Woods, DB from Arizona State, is transferring to MSU.
- MSU has picked up the first two members of its 2025 class. First up is Leo Hannan, QB from Servite H.S. in Anaheim, CA. Hannan is QB #50 nationally. The other recruit is Charles White, DB from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in West Bloomfield, MI. White is LB #67 nationally.
Please let me know if I missed any news clippings. Enjoy your weekend, TOC Nation.