Stop us if you have heard this before, but Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio wants 50,000 fans to attend the spring game for the Spartans next weekend. You know, just like he did last year at this time.
Dantonio has done wonders for the Spartan football program, establishing Michigan State as one of the top programs in the Big Ten and most recently coaching the team to a memorable victory in the Cotton Bowl. Michigan State is coming off back-to-back seasons with double-digit victories and has ended the season with a bowl victory four straight years under Dantonio. In that stretch Michigan State has played for the Big Ten title three times and won once. All of this comes while also dominating in-state Big Ten rival Michigan on the football field. Things are good at Michigan State, but Dantonio still feels a need to build around the program. His efforts have been aimed at juicing up the atmosphere at the spring game.
Last year Dantonio made a pitch to get 50,000 fans into Spartan Stadium for the annual spring game. An estimated 35,000 fans ended up showing for the spring game, which is far from a poor showing. But Dantonio wants to create an electric atmosphere, the kind perhaps more commonly seen in basketball. Michigan State being a school with a strong basketball background, that is not a bad way to strategize this effort.
“We’re trying to create a midnight madness type of effect for our spring game,’' Dantonio said, per MLive.com. “So I think it’s important that we engage our students and give them an opportunity to be out here and do some things that maybe other people don’t get to do all the time.”
Dantonio has high hopes for Michigan State, and they should not be considered unrealistic. Nebraska and Michigan are currently atop the spring game attendance rankings this season, and the Big Ten should be well represented again this weekend with Ohio State and Penn State wrapping up spring practices in front of perennially strong spring crowds. As far as Dantonio is concerned, Michigan State should be right in that mix (despite a considerably smaller stadium)
Michigan State’s spring game is scheduled for April 25 with a 2 p.m. eastern start time. The spring game will be carried live on Big Ten Network.
On a related note, here are the most up-to-date top spring game attendance numbers around the country this spring.