It’s not an uprising, but annually, there’s a murmur from fans: Michigan State’s nonleague home basketball schedule lacks punch.

No one would argue about the value of the overall season ticket — the nine Big Ten games make it a solid buy. It’s just heavily weighted on the back end.

The issue is two-tiered: There aren’t enough marquee games against big-time opponents; and there aren’t enough interesting games against teams that, well, you simply find interesting.

I wrote today about the former.

Column: Enjoy tonight, teams like Tar Heels won’t visit Breslin often

That’s not going to change anytime soon.

But perking up the schedule is doable, and begins in-state, and then by understanding Xavier or Kansas State might not be Kentucky or Kansas, but they’re interesting foes.

In my column, I quote Tom Izzo about how he’d rather play top 10 programs in home-and-home series, rather than at neutral sites — it’s better for both fan bases — and how he’s puzzled other coaches aren’t willing to do it.

He is only referring to elite programs. There is a pecking order in college basketball and MSU has climbed to near the top of it. The Spartans could schedule home-and-homes and 2-for-1s against mid-level high-majors and interesting mid-majors — and sometimes do. Doing so, albeit, comes a degree of risk.

While scheduling is undoubtedly a nightmare for the Spartans — as it is for everyone in college hoops (especially teams that win) — it’s far worse for good programs lacking cash or clout. Ask Utah State or Akron how difficult it is to get someone to come to their place.

MSU should consider an every-year series with Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Detroit and Oakland — all of them together — perhaps playing one on the road each season (something Izzo has done occasionally, and more frequently with out-of-state mid-majors).

Fans would rather see the Titans or Chippewas than McNeese State or Mount St. Mary’s. Every few years, the Spartans might lose one or two. Not the end the world.

Iowa took part in something like this from 1990-2012, playing a round-robin event with Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Drake.

If three or four of MSU six or seven nonleague home games were against Detroit (Perry Watson is gone, so the politics have improves), Western Michigan, Oakland, etc., wouldn’t those games be of more interest to you?

(Maybe if you sign a waiver that says you won’t overreact to occasional losses to in-state mid-majors, Izzo will do it.)

Package that with a second-tier high-major and home game against Texas or in the ACC/Big Ten challenge, sprinkle in a game or two vs. McNeese State or Columbia (two very different level programs) and, to me, it’s an interesting November and December at Breslin.

There are realities and limits to scheduling. The strength of MSU’s overall schedule nonleague schedule is solid, the marquee television exposure games plenty. But more could probably be done to make your ticket interesting, even without changing the level of competition substantially.

Michigan State might make the argument irrelevant. A week from now, Ohio State might not be unbeaten.

But if the Buckeyes still are, after the Big Ten championship game, and Auburn, with one loss, somehow jumps them in the BCS standings, a mythical national title just became not worth your time. It’ll be irrelevant. More so than ever.

Is Auburn better than Ohio State? Maybe. But that’s not our system. The system is ridiculous, yes. And leaving us after this year. But it’s still the system. And this farce of a system doesn’t leave unbeaten Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac-12 or Big 12 programs behind one-loss teams.

ESPN’s Jesse Palmer and David Pollack disagree and made that clear to the world Sunday night, emotionally pleading their bias. Gleefully so.These are SEC boys. This was typical uneducated Big Ten bashing veiled behind jealousy.

They dismissed MSU and slammed Wisconsin (which played Pac-12 division champ Arizona State to a stalemate on the road) and said the Big Ten wasn’t an elite AQ conference. And said so with almost hate in their tone. Under a microscope, without comparison, the ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12 look similar. And the SEC has a few unimpressive moments, too. And no one in this country is blowing out MSU — not ‘Bama nor Auburn — so to require it of Ohio State is silly and telling of a lack homework on the Spartans.

If these two walking hair products are influencing pollsters in the Harris and Coaches polls, shame on the pollsters, none of whom should be voting anyway. That goes for the AP poll, too. To vote, with limited information (as all voters have), is to irresponsibly impact the end of the college football season.

Is Ohio State’s nonleague schedule shameful? Yes. And, if this were next year, the Buckeyes would be punished for it. But this is this year.

And to say Auburn is better than Ohio State, we simply don’t know. To care so much about margin of victory is to encourage programs to run up the score, and to show ignorance in the understanding of football. Just because one good team wins its games more convincingly, doesn’t mean it’ll beat another good team that’s won its games less convincingly. And to judge based on that, well, that’s what we do. And that’s why there has never been an actual national champion.

If Ohio State beats MSU and doesn’t play for this final mythical national title, the only trophy worth holding this year in Pasadena will be for the Rose Bowl.

After four straight statement victories, this one didn’t come as easy for Michigan State. Winning 14-3 against Minnesota shouldn’t be considered a step back. This was a game opponent, having its own special season, still completely locked in and hopeful. The Gophers are 8-3 with wins over Nebraska and Penn State for a reason.

The score was similar to the early days of this season, but the football was completely different. The offense, while inconsistent, was fluid. The defense, while imperfect, kept Minnesota out of the end zone and limited the Gophers to two field goal attempts, turning them over three times.

Nothing that happened Saturday in East Lansing suggests MSU (11-1, 8-0 Big Ten) isn’t ready for its Big Ten title game showdown with Ohio State next week.

MSU beat a really good team and did it without having to hold its breath in the final minutes. The Spartans, at worst, should be BCS bowl bound, provided they don’t fall hard to the Buckeyes.

EAST LANSING — Minnesota is a better team and of better mind than Northwestern or Nebraska.

For a moment today, it looked like MSU might turn its senior day into a celebration of this season. The Spartans moved down the field beautifully on their first drive for a score. Then Trae Waynes came up the first of his two interceptions, quickly giving the ball back to MSU.

But there is a reason Minnesota is a great story, at 8-3 and 4-3 in the Big Ten. This is physical football team that’s still locked in to this season.

Connor Cook’s last-minute INT is the sort of blunder he’s avoided all season (he’s only thrown four picks, none since the Michigan game). It’s a big reason why this season has happened as it has.

The Spartans are the better team. But they’ve shown their not completely above some of their early season errors — drops and misses on third-and-short.

MSU gets the ball to start the second half. The Spartans would be smart to add a score quickly. Minnesota is in this.

1. MSU’s continual progress offensively.

Through each of the last four games, Illinois through Northwestern, MSU has been more complete as an offense each week. Connor Cook set completion percentage records against Illinois in late October, and yet, last week, in frigid and windy conditions, he was even better — as was the ground game and play calling. If it continues like this, by next week, against Ohio State, this might be the most balanced and complete offense in the Big Ten. Considering where it once was, that’s amazing.

2. Can MSU’s defense get it back?

The standard the Spartan defense set through nine games, culminating with a dominating performance against Michigan, made expectations unfair. Unrealistic as they may be, MSU defensively has been less than itself through much of the last two games, at Nebraska and Northwestern. Minnesota’s offense plays to the strengths of MSU’s defense, but next week against Ohio State will be a challenge greater than any this group has faced. A suffocating, swagger-building effort against the Gophers would help this crew heading into the matchup with the Buckeyes.

3. Minnesota’s offense.

The Gophers are an amazing story. They are not, however, an amazing offense. They’re 11th in the Big Ten in total offense and didn’t produce a single point as an offense last week against Wisconsin. To beat MSU, this crew will have to get into the 20s. We’ll know right away whether the Gophers can move the ball. If they can’t, game over.

4. Will Andrew Maxwell play? Talk?

I wrote a column this week on Andrew Maxwell, without speaking to Andrew Maxwell. He’s not doing interviews. He’s a sympathetic figure, a stand-up guy. Just not a great quarterback. Mark Dantonio would like him to play today. And if he does and it goes well, I’m hoping he talks afterward. His story is interesting. I’d like to know how he is and what he has to say.

5. The crowd. (I wrote another column about this.)

It’s going to be cold today. Not as cold as last week at Northwestern, but not exactly comfortable, either. The students are on Thanksgiving break and some season ticket holders probably find this holiday weekend game inconvenient. Anything less than 65,000 — not announced, but actual — is a bad crowd, embarrassingly so, considering what these seniors have accomplished and what they still have a chance to do.

I gave Derrick Nix all sorts of grief in a column last year for how he handled a situation similar to this.

Nix had missed a class he needed to be at, and then missed the first half of a Big Ten game against Illinois. Afterward, he acted as if it were no big deal, loafing around the locker room, instead of addressing the issue.

It was a telling moment of poor leadership from a player Michigan State badly wanted to be its leader. He was, after all, a captain.

Adreian Payne, Keith Appling and Branden Dawson skipped most of a class — one they shared — and paid the price Friday, missing the first six minutes of a 98-65 win over Mount St. Mary’s. The embarrassment of not starting, more than the time missed, was the message, coach Tom Izzo said.

Missing a class here and there isn’t a huge deal (though it’s hard for this trio to sneak in to any lecture hall late), but his was one they were apparently told to be at. It happened before a game MSU was never going to lose and early in the season.

What mattered most is how it was handled in the locker room. No one dodged the topic. Payne especially took is seriously but acted personably, half-joking as he pointed at Appling sitting in front of his locker undisturbed.

“There goes Keith right there,” trying to move the attention off of himself.

“I understand why he did it,” Payne said of Izzo. “I respect the decision.”

Seven games in, it’s unclear whether leadership will be a strength or weakness of this team. There are not captains yet, though I tend to think, on the court, this is a pretty strong group mentally. But Friday was a well-timed reminder that even the smallest acts of stupidity off the court can derail a special season. That makes an otherwise ho-hum drilling of Mount St. Mary’s worthwhile.

Happy Black Friday. If you’re reading this on your phone, standing in a long check-out line at Best Buy, 40-inch television tucked in your cart, the $200 you might have saved (if the sale price was truthful) barely worth your lost dignity, let’s start to get back to normal.

MSU vs. Minnesota, noon Saturday at Spartan Stadium. To steal a line from Jack Ebling, this wasn’t the MSU-U of M game that was supposed to matter. Actually, the last one mattered, too, but you get the joke.

The goal for the Spartans is the Rose Bowl. But should they fall short next week, this week is important. MSU (10-1, 7-0 Big Ten) needs to beat the Gophers to get to any other BCS bowl.

Minnesota (8-3, 4-3 Big Ten) is an awesome story. And Jerry Kill and his staff have done an incredible job there, as they have everywhere they’ve been — Saginaw Valley, Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois. This crew can coach.

But I don’t think the Gophers have enough offensive punch to beat MSU right now.

The Spartans have been so focused in recent weeks, so balanced offensively and, with it being the senior day for the winningest class in school history, I don’t see that slipping.

Here are a couple stories and columns on that class, in case your Thanksgiving didn’t include reading MSU football coverage.

From Joe Rexrode: MSU’s senior quartet has grown together on elite defense.

My column: Andrew Maxwell endures quietly, but doesn’t fade from hearts of teammates, coaches.

How do you see today?

As we wrap up the regular season of our predictions contest — the bowl game counts — here’s a look at where things stand:

Jmac last week was the first to pick the score exactly all season, predicting a 30-6 MSU win over Northwestern. He’ll get two wins for that.

So, on the season, Jmac, Trophy, jmr and Lancelot_Spartan have two wins. AGSpartanFan, Justin, SpartyOn, Tobacco Road Spartan, GreenGuy, Ryan Borucki and zachj each have one win.

How about this week? What happens? Analysis and predictions, please?

Tiebreaker: Number of total yards of offense for Minnesota.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

Two years ago, when Michigan went to a BCS bowl game ahead of Michigan State, that was bunk.

This isn’t that.

For the next two weeks, as MSU plays Minnesota and then preps for Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game, naturally folks will brace for the worst — what if the Spartans lose to the Buckeyes?

In that case, would the Big Ten get a second BCS bowl bid? And, just as importantly, would be be MSU or Wisconsin?

The Spartans (10-1) are ranked No. 11 in the latest BCS standings, the Badgers (9-2) 15th. But, if Wisconsin closes out the season with a convincing win over Penn State, it might move into the top 14, which is necessary to jump MSU.

The point of this blog is not whether the Badgers would or not, but whether they deserve to. And that is entirely up to MSU and how it plays against Ohio State (11-0).

When Michigan was chosen for the Sugar Bowl in 2011, that wasn’t deserved. It was the BCS system proving again the “C” is either silent or standing for “Cash.” The Wolverines finished below the Spartans in the same division and lost the head-to-head matchup. They didn’t belong ahead of MSU in the bowl pecking order. That was plain to see.

Wisconsin is in a different situation. The Badgers have one Big Ten defeat — on the road, at Ohio State, in September, by a touchdown. And, because they’re in the Buckeyes’ division, that early loss sealed their Big Ten fate.

If, on a neutral field in December, MSU loses by more than seven to the Buckeyes, one can easily make the argument than Wisconsin is the Big Ten’s second-best team and just as deserving, if not more so, of a BCS bowl bid.

As I wrote in today’s Lansing State Journal column, the only other loss for either team this season — MSU at Notre Dame, Wisconsin at Arizona State — was bogus, as much officials’ error as anything, and on the road. So there’s no separation in the non-conference season, either.

If MSU wins in Indianapolis, however, the Badgers shouldn’t be able to jump the Buckeyes — and won’t. That would fall under the same principle as the shenanigans with Michigan going over MSU two years ago.

EVANSTON, Ill. — Against difficult weather conditions and a Northwestern team unwilling to give up on its disastrous season, MSU put together a game Saturday worthy of its ever-impressive season.

The Spartans (10-1, 7-0 Big Ten) clinched the Legends Division and a berth in the Dec. 7 Big Ten championship game with a smart and decisive performance, their 10th double-digit win of the season.

With the wind, MSU let Connor Cook throw and he was terrific — on target and in rhythm. Against it, the Spartans relied on Jeremy Langford, who also delivered. This might have been offensive coordinator Dave Warner’s best game, beginning with a series of Langford misdirection run calls on the Spartans’ first touchdown drive.

MSU’s defense wasn’t perfect, giving up 19 first downs and more than 300 yards, but it didn’t let the Wildcats in the end zone. And, in the second half, it never let the Wildcats think they had a chance.

This season has reaffirmed the strength of Mark Dantonio’s program. In two weeks, in Indianapolis, this team will have a chance to cement its legacy.

EVANSTON, Ill. — There was a day, not so long ago, when Michigan State’s offense couldn’t find big touchdown plays or convert in the red zone.

One of the reasons MSU is 9-1 and 6-0 in the Big Ten, is the Spartans now can. And, against Northwestern, they have.

The difference in the game: One perfectly called and executed drive — featuring tons of misdirection and eight Jeremy Langford for 69 yards — and one 87-yard somewhat lucky pitch and catch from Connor Cook to Bennie Fowler.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats (4-6, 0-6) have moved the ball just as well — MSU has 244 yards to their 224 — but like the Spartans last year and early this season, stalled close to the goal line.

MSU’s season has improved on a number of fronts, the ability to punch the ball in the end zone as important as any.

More after the game.