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An ESPN.com insiders story raises questions about Michigan State's football future after Connor Cook's final season, perhaps unaware of the talents Damion Terry and Tyler O'Connor have shown in practices.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

EAST LANSING -- ESPN "insider" college football panel has determined Michigan State is No. 18 in the nation when it comes to future power rankings.

A panel of of eight writers ranked teams in several areas: coaching, current talent, recruiting, title path and foundation, and the Spartans came out as the third-best team in the Big Ten.

Defending national champion Ohio State was No. 1, though former Big Ten writer -- and now national writer -- Adam Rittenberg cautions that "Ohio State has to worry about more than Michigan State going forward.''

Alabama, Florida State, Auburn and LSU round out the top five in the pay site article.

Three of the four teams Michigan State has defeated in bowl games the past four years are ranked ahead of the Spartans; Georgia (No. 8), TCU (No. 12) and Baylor (No. 14).

Stanford, the program MSU beat in the Rose Bowl following the 2014 season, is at No. 20.

Michigan (No. 15) is the other Big Ten team ranked ahead of Michigan State, though ESPN's Brad Edwards says "First, they've got to become the best team in the state again.''

The Spartans, the article point out, join Oregon and Alabama as the only power five conference schools to win 11 games or more four of the past five seasons.

But Rittenberg suggests Michigan State will have an issue trying to replace quarterback Connor Cook.

"It's not obvious who the next guy is. That's the biggest thing for them."

A couple of the more glaring oversights in the article are that the panel ignores Michigan State's 2016 top 10 recruiting class and the current senior class of players that signed together.

The Spartans' 2011 class included projected first-round NFL draft picks Cook and Shilique Calhoun, along with this year's first-round draft pick Trae Waynes.

Lawrence Thomas, Jack Allen, Ed Davis, and Joel Heath are four other players who project to be drafted from that 2011 class.

In hindsight, that class was of top 25 ilk, though it was only No. 32 at the time, according to the 247sports composite.

"Michigan State very rarely cracks the top 25, let alone top 10, in recruiting rankings,'' the article states.

But the Spartans' class ranked No. 25 in 2014, No. 22 in 2015, and currently ranks No. 6 for 2016, essentially deflating that assertion.

The article also pays no heed to the confidence Mark Dantonio has repeatedly said he has in backup quarterbacks Tyler O'Connor and Damion Terry.

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