Every year, there are tiers of national title contenders in college basketball. There are the true contenders who will undoubtedly be there all year, there are the second-tier contenders who have exceeded expectations early and should be around all season, there are dark-horses, and then there are teams that are highly ranked but aren’t expected to do much.
According to one college hoops media outlet, Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans fall in that final category.
OK, maybe I exaggerated what the outlet actually said, but it basically called the Spartans third-tier contenders in a category labeled “the rest of the top 12” which is a step below the actual contenders.