Dr. Green and White Sports Authority

Football appears to be over for Michigan State fans, but basketball season is just heating up. For the entire three months of the football season, I have been providing a mathematics and simulation-based approach to predicting how the football season will play out. But my analysis is not limited to the gridiron. Very similar methods can be used to project the results on the basketball court as well. The primary difference between the methods that I use for football and basketball is the way that I evaluate the strength of each team. For football, I have my own power ranking algorithm that I supplement with preseason rankings in the first few weeks of the season. For basketball, I rely on the tempo-free efficiency data provided by Ken Pomeroy (a.k.a. "Kenpom").  The data supplied by Kenpom can be used to project point spreads and the probability of victory in any arbitrary college basketball match-up. If one has a method to estimate these probabilities, then essentially the en

Well, Spartan fans, we have officially reached the end of the 2022 football season. Michigan State's loss to Penn State on Saturday in combination with a few other results means that it will be a very, very quiet holiday season for Spartan football fans. If you want the opinion from this Doc as to what was up this year, I say that at the beginning of the year, Spartan fans thought that the Green and White might tear through the schedule like the Tasmanian Devil. Early in the season, though, it suddenly started feeling like Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Road Runner. By the end the result simply stunk like Pepe Le Pew. I would not blame fans at all if the ending made them very angry, very angry indeed.  The offseason beckons for the Michigan State Spartans. The soap opera that was the 2022 is complete. In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny: "Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?" But, also (almost) in the words of Bugs Bunny: "Don’t take life (or fo

The circle of life for Spartan fans has its ups and downs Most college football seasons feel like an amusement park roller coaster ride at some point, but the current season for the Michigan State Spartans seems to have had more big drops, reversed direction a couple of times, and even left fans and players in the dark. A lot of fans just want to get off and hop on over to that exciting looks basketball-themed ride across the way. A few days ago Spartan fans essentially had no worries about at least making a bowl. I mean, seriously? Who blows a 17-point lead to Indiana on Senior Day? But here we are. Now, it is Michigan State who will travel to State College to face a pride of Nittany Lions on their Senior Day. In this case, I think that word is very appropriate. Pride. That is the one thing that I want to see most this weekend from the Spartans. I would like them to be prepared. I would like to see them play with passion. I would like them to execute. I would like them to show a littl

Spartans fans, it is okay to be angry. It is honestly pretty difficult to process the events in Spartan Stadium on Saturday as Michigan State dropped a heart-breaker in the snow and in double overtime on Senior Day to the Indiana Hoosiers. There is no reason to put on a brave face. This stinks. After a very difficult start to the season, things were looking up for the Spartans. Halfway through the game with Indiana, Michigan State appeared to be on cruise control to qualify for a bowl game and send the seniors off as winners. But then... things happened. Lots of incredibly bad things happened. The crimson and cream visitors from Bloomington stole the souls of the Spartans. Fans and players alike were both left seeing red and turning red in the face. Worse yet, the Hoosiers even took our favorite spittoon with them on their way out of town. The season has once again been turned inside out. The success that the Spartans enjoyed last year season now seems lightyears away. Next week will p

I am not sure about you, but it is hard to believe that it is the middle of November and that we have already reached the final home game of the season. This means that for a certain group of Michigan State Spartans, Saturday will mark their final game in Spartan Stadium. It will be Senior Day in East Lansing. The complications of COVID and transfer rules make it difficult to know exactly which players will not be returning next year. 5th year player Xavier Henderson has used up all of his eligibility and it seems likely that Saturday will mark the end of the Spartan careers for players like Jarrett Horst, Elijah Collins, Jacob Slade, and likely several more. Back in the summer, I am sure that these players and Spartan fans expected Senior Day would be a chance to rack up a eighth, ninth, or even tenth win and a chance to position themselves for yet another New Year's Six Bowl. Instead, this group of seniors is simply playing to earn the right to make the post-season at all. That g