MSU affiliation of the phrase aside (and I would bet Slippery Rock's head coach probably doesn't know about the meme) that's actually a really cool thing for him to say. I'm glad they enjoyed the experience and got a little more recognition for their efforts than they usually do. I actually have a couple friends at Slippery Rock and they really think it's a cool little "quirk" or whatever you want to call their relationship with Michigan. Good for their program.

Thanks I hadn't hear dthat about slippery rock. Good attitude for them and us. 

On the our true little brother. They embrace it because UM is their boogeymen. Season colaplses, big brotehrs fault. Trash tornado, Denards fault. Student section doesn't show up, Big brotehrs fault. Just blame it on big brother. It is very useful for Dantonio to deflect blame from him, his team, and their fans.

The obsession over this whole comment cuts to the heart of the current Spartan UM issue.

The UM being the older institution (since 1817 and nearing it bicentennial) and the one which has long been more influential (politically, economically, socially) can be looked upon as the "old firm" establishment and MSU as the upstart. It began as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan - becoming later the State Agricultural College. The school predates East Lansing as a municipality. By the early 1900, it had evolved into Michigan Agricultural College. By the 1920's it was Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. It was not until 1964 that it actually became Michigan State University (MSU).

Historically with the many name changes and an ever evolving mission one can see that a fixed identity has only been recent development. Interestingly the Spartans had a long period of football prowess which dominated the 1950's and early 1960's. The only joined the Big Ten in 1949 but the Duffy Daugherty era (1954-1972) saw them finish first in the Coaches Poll twice in 1965 and 1966.

So why aren't the Sparty Fans more magnamimous given a pretty decent football history? The end of Daugherty era saw the rise of Bo and with that, years of 0.500 or so teams and the 1970's ushered in the Big 2 and the Little 8. It was also a period when college football on TV became really big with color TV penetration overtaking black-white broadcasts and those "in color" notices on TV programs started to fade out.  The reach of TV, the vast size of the UM alumni, and the expansion of the student body coincided nicely with Bo's great period. Vast pools of people now followed the Wolverines who had no actual ties with the school.

Most of the current Sparty fans are too young to remember when they were good for a long time. In contrast most of the Michigan fans who are younger lived through the Bo/Mo/Lloyd era when Michigan was usually very good to great. The much older fans who remember the fallow period between 1949 and 1969 are only a smaller slice of the fanbase and they have lived to see the Wolverines become dominant again.

It must be pretty awkward to go out with him in public when he's dressed like this.

This thread makes me wonder what the average age of the posters on this board is. Mike Hart didn't invent the "little brother" concept. That interpretation of the relationship has been around for as long as I've been alive at least (I'm 30), and probably a lot longer. And as Michigan Arrogance noted, it's not even particularly unique to the Michigan-MSU rivalry. It may be unique as far as the B1G is concerned, since AFAIK neither Indiana & Purdue nor Illinois & Northwestern have this particular dynamic, and no other B1G schools share a state. But you look at, say, Oklahoma-OSU, or Washington-WSU, or even Texas-TAMU, and it's the same relationship. Expecting the "Little Brother Mantra" to "Go Away" is tantamount to expecting Michigan State to somehow permanently overtake Michigan as both the flagship academic instititution in the state, and the preeminent athletic program in both football and basketball. It isn't going to happen.

Looks like someone never had a childhood.

Endowment envy?

I don't buy that Hart's comment actually hurt us.  It was a coincidence that he said it right before we went through a difficult coaching transition that set our program back.  That comment did not make Dantonio become obsessed with us.   He hated our guts long before Hart said anything.  In fact, I recall Dantonio mocking us after the Appalachian game.

Not a judgment, just an observation: I think those of us who have friends and/or family who go to MSU are the most reluctant to adopt the "Little Brother" theme. For what it's worth, I found that my out-of-state friends tended to embrace "Little Brother" the most. 

"Bit us in the ass more than it helped us?"

The only thing that "bit us in the ass" was a temporary shift in the balance of talent due to a lot of infighting, which resulted in so-called "Michigan men" telling instate coaches not to send their players to Michigan.  This allowed Sparty to build a decent team.

Getting instate players won't ever win Michigan a national championship, or even beat Ohio, but it will keep enough of them away from Sparty to keep them down where they belong.  The fact that everyone is on the same page is going to make sure that Sparty wins the Sparty Super Bowl three times every ten years, as they did for the previous four decades.

As a former MSU student, this is entirely true. The only thing the school was self-assured in was basketball and the rest of it was comparisons to Michigan. The worst part about it is that because of this, the school's identity suffers from an envy that defines its character. It would be a much better school and probably have better sports if it stopped always trying to compare itself to U-M and just accept that it is a different place.

By your arbitrary standard, the "balance of power" never shifted away. We won 6 in a row before the current streak (which happened largely against the worst teams M fielded in decades) and it should have been 8 without Spartan Bob.

C'mon man. Just make ONE post where I don't feel compelled to neg you. Just one.

we'd have lost in East Lansing this year.

Why? Notre Dame, Ohio, Iowa and Nebraska all managed to win in East Lansing this year. MSU doesn't seem to have much of a homefield advantage this season.

update the website "Shit My Dad Says" to include his commentary on MSU.  That would be funny.

I was a freshman in 1969 and had many Spartan friends from High School. The little brother thing was around then and had been around quite a while. They did not get the opportunity to attend UM. The difference then was limited success by Sparty in most sports. Their success in basketball came later. As did occasional success in football.

I asked my mom what it was like when MSU was the dominant team under Munn and Duffy, and thy sed to get all the attention. And she was like "no, even then the media still paid more attention to Michigan, because they were Michigan." So no matter how good they were, they always were made to feel like second class citizens.