John U. Bacon

On Sunday, the Michigan Wolverines faced the Michigan State Spartans in the final of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament. After a decade of domination by the Spartans, John Beilein’s Wolverines held the upper hand the past four years. After losing two stars to the NBA and one to back surgery, they surprised just about everyone when they won the regular season Big Ten title this year by three games. Now they had the rare chance to beat the Spartans three times in one season.

Well, they say beating your arch-rival three times is almost impossible, and that proved true. There was no debating this one. The Spartans beat the Wolverines by 14 points. Spartans’ head coach Tom Izzo is doing what Tom Izzo does: Getting his team ready at just the right time for a good run in the NCAA tournament.

But Sunday’s game might have given both teams what they needed for the tournament: a spark of confidence for the Spartans, and a wake-up call for the Wolverines. I’ll bet both Izzo and Beilein are smart enough to use the Big Ten final game to motivate their players.

But, whatever happens in the NCAA tournament, both teams have elevated basketball in the state of Michigan – and with it, the rivalry between them. And they’ve done it the right way, too.

Since Izzo took over in 1995, he has graduated about 80% of his players – higher than the average of the student body at large.

Izzo grew up in the Upper Peninsula, and he’s proud of it. “People work hard up there,” he told me. “They’re straight with you. Kids are brought up that way, and that’s the only way they know. It’s in their blood. Remember this: All kids want to be disciplined – doesn’t matter where they’re from or who their parents are. I believe that. Discipline is a form of love.”

By that definition, Izzo’s players get a lot of love – and Beilein loves his players just as much. The year after Beilein took over in 2007, his players notched the most improved grade point average of any Michigan team. His players either go to the NBA, or graduate on time.

When I was watching Michigan beat Indiana two weeks ago, I looked out on the court and realized all but one of the starters had taken my class on the history of college athletics. (And no, despite the name, it’s not a blow-off. I’m a tyrant.) But why hadn’t the fifth player on the court, center Jordan Morgan, taken my class? Because I don’t teach master’s-level courses in engineering. That’s how you do it.

For decades, the rivalry between these two basketball teams never peaked, because one team was always riding high, while the other usually trailed far behind. But now, finally, both teams are performing at the game’s highest level, on and off the court.

In 2001, Izzo told me, “It should be a Duke-North Carolina thing around here, because there are too many good players in this state for one school to get them all.” Thirteen years later, the success of both teams has proved Izzo right: There’s more than enough talent in the state to fuel two top teams.

To equal the Duke-North Carolina rivalry would take a few decades, of course, but so long as Beilein and Izzo are coaching, that’s the direction Michigan-Michigan State is going.

The big winner here is college basketball. For all those who say the term “Student-athlete” is an oxymoron – and at too many schools, it is – these two programs stand as solid proof that you can do it the right way, and still beat the guys who don’t.

About the writer: Ann Arbor resident John U. Bacon is the author of the national bestsellers “Fourth and Long: The Future of College Football,” “Bo’s Lasting Lessons” and “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” You can follow him on Twitter (@Johnubacon), and at johnubacon.com.

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John U. Bacon

For college coaches and athletes, June is supposed to be reserved for easy chores like conducting camps, fixing tackling dummies and replacing nets.

Well, so much for the lazy, hazy days of summer. This has been one of the craziest Junes of all time.

The NCAA finally completed its four-year investigation of the cesspool that is the University of Southern California’s athletic department. The NCAA was shocked – shocked! – to discover USC’s boosters were giving tens of thousands of dollars to their star players. (The NCAA officials must have been the last folks to know.)

But, to its credit, the NCAA actually came down with some consequences: a two-year ban on bowl games, and the loss of 10 scholarships for the next three years. The school cheated for wins and for money, and their punishment will cost them wins and money – though probably not as many wins and as much money as they gained by cheating.

That would have been pretty big news by itself. But then the Big Ten started talking about expanding, which sent every major conference into a paranoid frenzy, trying to keep their leagues intact. Rumors started flying about this school and that conference. Some said the Big Ten might expand to as many as 16 teams, including Notre Dame, and the Big Eight, the Big East and maybe even the venerable ACC would collapse.

Well, at the end of this national game of musical chairs, with schools scurrying to secure a seat, exactly two four schools have changed conferences: Colorado and Utah to the Pac-10, Nebraska to the Big Ten and Boise State to the Mountain West. And no conferences are close to collapsing.

Now, if you ask why the Big Ten now has 12 teams, and the Big Twelve has 10 teams – I’d say, you’re not very familiar with the logic of college football, such as it is. If you’re not a college football fan, for example, you might not know the answer to this riddle: What does the ‘N’ on Nebraska’s helmet stand for? Knowledge, of course.

So what was that whole dance all about? Not knowledge. Not student-athletes, either. But money, pure and simple. And lots of it.

And that brings us to the next big college sports subject this month: Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo, who is rightly regarded as a living legend, a man whose success and character have stamped his school indelibly. So when the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers came calling, offering a $30 million contract, and the possibility of coaching LeBron James, Spartan fans shuddered. As Izzo said, “Sometimes there are opportunities that come about that must be thoroughly examined … This one was uniquely intriguing.”

Izzo, a born competitor, was tempted by the challenge of coaching at the highest level, and one of the game’s greatest players. He’s also sick of the recruiting madness that has taken over the college game – witness USC – which makes it harder and harder for an honest coach to succeed.

But, unlike the folks who run USC’s athletic department and the Big Ten conference, Izzo decided making the most money wasn’t the most important thing.

“It’s been an agonizing week,” he said. But, “I’m pleased to say I am here for life at Michigan State.”

That’s not just good news for Michigan State, but for the State of Michigan – and the state of college athletics.

About the author: John U. Bacon lives in Ann Arbor and has written for Time, the New York Times, and ESPN Magazine, among others. His most recent book is “Bo’s Lasting Lessons,” a New York Times and Wall Street Journal business bestseller. Bacon teaches at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism; and the University of Michigan, where the students awarded him the Golden Apple Award for 2009. This commentary originally aired on Michigan Radio.