Closer to home: Michigan State

http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/19557569/arrest-warrants-signed-three-michigan-state-spartans-charged-sexual-assault

It took almost half a year.  We've seen some potentially "petty" things but they have to be consistent.

What do you learn if you follow Michigan recruiting?  Michigan wanted Donnie Corley.  Josh King was a sought-after recruit.  Demetric Vance was a four-star from Cass Tech.  Auston Robertson too is in jail.

For those who follow more generally it is a familiar refrain.  Watch your step.  Don't take or send videos, images, or texts.  Three on one or strong athlete vs. drunk female is not a fair fight.

The Title IX investigations and staffs definitely have an impact as a second line of defense.

Everyone has said Mark Dantonio and even Michigan State have done all they could.

Still, in all fairness, it was going to be a gut punch like almost no other.

There are some really weird rumors about teammate feuds and girlfriends, retaliation, and really bad karma. We'll see it in the attrition stats (the blogger has complied), but beyond that we may never know unless you follow it really closely.

It is hard to say what went on with the alleged crimes.  So the winner still has to be LB Jon Reshcke, who I think was one of their best players and a team leader.  You could Google "what did Jon Reshcke say" but that is your choice.  Apparently he still hasn't caught on with another team.

Michigan State:  They hardly every get any bigger, except Ohio State and maybe Penn State.  Obviously they are going to defend Dantonio, and everything he stands for because he has created a culture of winning.  Looking at it as a Michigan fan it is potentially a system based on lesser standards and even morals.

In the movie and novel Anatomy of a Murder the prosecution sent the big boys (George C. Scott) from Lansing because it was that important.  Throughout James Stewart--for the defense--reminded the court that he was just a small-town fisherman from Iron City, Michigan.  And to make a long story short, he won.

Michigan State, in East Lansing, is under the same magnifying glass.  They're bigger and arguably even more "important" than Michigan; football aside (!) they are more everyone in Michigan than Michigan.  They have to and they will do it right.

That is what they are doing and it has been S-L-O-W.

Larry Nasser aside--there's the double-whammy--nobody knew.  Dantonio was in charge of something really rotten.  Curtis Blackwell seems just a little bit shady; Grant Perry too, touche'.  But the frequency with which it has happened recently means...

Mark Dantonio has a hole to climb out of but it is not insurmountable.  The surest way to predict the future is to base it on the past, and he has done it before.  This time it is going to be even harder.

The Big Ten, as dull as the bottom half is, has four really strong programs in Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, and Wisconsin (maybe Iowa too).   Coaching- and recruiting-wise, Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh are at the top of their profession.  Throw in Penn State and MSU's road back is even tougher.  Perennial top ten teams are inextricably tied to recruiting rankings.

Second, the internal landscape at Michigan State just got a lot tougher.  Obviously there will be more scrutiny, "sanctions" (e.g., APR penalties, no bowl practices), and Title IX.

Or, Dantiono could just go down as a "tragic hero" like his mentor Jim Tressel.

Time will tell.  In the meantime, Michigan is in good hands.