College football: ESPN GameDay at Michigan State

Lee Corso, left, and Kirk Herbstreit clap along to the Michigan State fight song during the ESPN College GameDay show Saturday morning near Beaumont Tower on Michigan State's campus. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

EAST LANSING -- Michigan State has made it clear throughout the preseason: they are one of the hunted, not the hunted, in the Big Ten.

They may not have that distinction anymore.

Hours after reports surfaced that Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller, the two-time Big Ten MVP, could be out for the season with an injury, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit was crowning the Spartans the conference's new preseason favorites.

“I think it goes all of a sudden from Ohio State, overnight now I think Michigan State now is the team to beat in the Big Ten,” Herbstreit said Tuesday afternoon on a teleconference with reporters.

Michigan State was voted second in Big Ten East, behind Ohio State, in the preseason media poll and was three spots behind the Buckeyes in the first Associated Press poll.

Miller, Herbstreit said, was arguably as important to his team as any player in college football in 2014.

But does Miller’s injury, and the subsequent blow for the level of competition in the Big Ten, make the Spartans’ road to the 2015 College Football Playoff tougher?

Fellow ESPN College Gameday host Chris Fowler said he doesn’t see that as the case.

“I’m not sure I see a huge connection there,” Fowler said. “I don’t think it dramatically changes what the Spartans have to do to get in the playoffs.”

Fowler and Herbstreit could be seeing Michigan State play during the second week of the season, when the Spartans travel to Oregon for what Fowler called “arguably the best, most interesting matchup of September.”

That game, Herbstreit said, will have large implications on Michigan State’s playoff chances.

“If they’re able to win that game and make a run through the Big Ten, I think it’d be very hard to keep Michigan State out of the final four,” Herbstreit said.

And to come out with a win in Eugene, Herbstreit said he thinks Spartans coach Mark Dantonio will have to open up his offense and play to his strength in quarterback Connor Cook and the passing game.

“I think they’re going to have to do that,” Herbstreit said.

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