The Big Ten has a new favorite to win the conference in 2024-25: Michigan State basketball.
Michigan State basketball fans hoping for a year of tempered expectations may have to keep dreaming.
After two solid performances in Spain with a couple of international wins, Michigan State was upgraded to the favorite to win the Big Ten at Caesar’s Sportsbook. The Spartans overtook previous favorite UCLA on Sunday.
MSU basketball now favorite to win B1G pic.twitter.com/kJ0sF6eBvW
— WR (@WRswagdaddy) 18 August 2024
This is a pretty shocking development considering the Spartans lost Tyson Walker, AJ Hoggard, Mady Sissoko and Malik Hall from a team that barely sneaked into the NCAA Tournament despite being ranked in the top five last season. Overall, it was a disappointing year, but Michigan State still lost its best players from that team and replaced them with a couple of transfers and a three-man freshman class.
But Vegas apparently got enough out of that trip to Spain to make the Spartans the new favorite to win the conference at +425. That seems like quite a jump considering they’ve only played two games abroad.
It must have been the 105-59 win over Valencia that caught Vegas’ attention. The Spartans dominated a team of grown men by nearly 50 points, and their presumed leading scorers were relatively quiet (Jaden Akins and Frankie Fidler scored in double figures, but Jeremy Fears and Xavier Booker combined for just nine points). The depth that Tom Izzo’s team displays is impressive, and I think that’s why the hype is growing.
Behind Michigan State and UCLA are Illinois, Purdue and Indiana, all of whose odds are below +1000.
Nationally, Caesar has Michigan State basketball as the 13th best contender for the national title. These odds are all shocking considering some early preseason projections had Michigan State finishing in the middle of the pack in the new 18-team conference.
Izzo now has even more expectations to live up to, fair or not. It’s time to get back to the top or die trying.
