Reputation as College Football Elite on the Line in Michigan State vs. Oregon

Figuring out college football’s elite teams this year should be as simple as looking up who occupies the top spots in the AP Top 25 poll.

Team A is ranked No. 1, Team B is No. 2 and so on. Those at the top are far superior to everyone else—no need to even look beyond the top couple of programs to figure out who’s good and who qualifies as great.

Things just are not quite that simple, especially early into the 2015 cycle. That’s particularly true given today’s poll mentality that dictates teams drop significantly after losses but barely move up with wins.

Ohio State is a known quantity at this point. Alabama appeared to be in its select company based on the Tide’s opener against Wisconsin. TCU and Baylor, on paper, will be right there until their clash after Thanksgiving creates separation. But who else can join the ranks of the few and the destination of the many?

On Saturday in East Lansing, at least one team will. Week 2’s clash of the titans—it’s the first Top 10 matchup at Spartan Stadium since the Game of the Century with No. 1 Notre Dame in 1966—figures to be our early opportunity to christen a new team among the cream of the crop. That it comes between two squads who sport a handful of questions to go with their abundance of talent only serves to make things that much juicier.

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As the home team, there is plenty of pressure on Michigan State to make up for last year’s second-half falter in a 46-27 loss. The final score was not indicative as to how close the contest was, and a lot of the momentum on Sparty (they’re 10-11 favorites on Odds Shark) stems from the return of seasoned veteran Connor Cook and defenders on NFL radars like end Shilique Calhoun.

Those two will certainly have to come up big if they’re to keep pace with the Ducks, who face their first major test without Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota. But they do sport a wealth of talent, which is enough to keep the MSU coaches up late at night.

Quarterback Vernon Adams will draw most of the attention on him this week. But that would overlook key contributors like tailback Royce Freeman, all-purpose threat Byron Marshall, potential first-round defensive end DeForest Buckner, plus 2013’s leading receiver, Bralon Addison, and veteran left tackle Tyler Johnstone all being in the fold.

In short, these are two talented teams. Each has a few question marks, especially defensively after shaky openers. But both are more than capable of earning an early slot in the College Football Playoff field.

Entering that discussion among this year’s elite means a little more to the Spartans than it does to the Ducks, who have been in the conversation for several years. Michigan State under Mark Dantonio has won a Rose Bowl, upended Baylor in the Cotton Bowl and is the only the second Big Ten team that Ohio State’s Urban Meyer has ever lost to in his career.

It has been a top-notch program in recent memory and is certainly among the best to not have made it to the national title game. Its excellence isn’t being debated, and it is in many ways a model team and program.

It’s just that, well…it has never been looked at as an elite team. A very good one, yes, but one that appears to have a glass ceiling in a world where the national title looks like it will make several more stops in Columbus. Combined with the perception of the Big Ten outside of the region, and it’s not a stretch to say that Dantonio’s bunch can rightfully play Rodney Dangerfield and claim no respect. 

In more ways than one, this year’s motto for Michigan State—“reach higher”—is apt. That can start this weekend. 

Oregon can go on to have a fantastic season if it loses on Saturday, possibly even making a run at the playoff based on the strength of the Pac-12 slate it has to face. The same could be said of Michigan State, who could make a loss disappear from everybody's minds with a huge upset of Ohio State in late November.

But for now, a place at the table among college football’s elite programs for this season is at stake on Saturday, and only one team can emerge to claim it.

Who will step up? That remains to be seen, but it certainly should be plenty of fun to see who does.

You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.