Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo exits the court after 70-64 loss to Auburn at the Elite Eight round of NCAA tournament at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga. on Sunday, March 30, 2025. Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

How to Evaluate MSU's Storied Success, Lack of Championships

Originally posted on Michigan State Spartans on SI
By Tom Cavanaugh | Last updated Jul 2, 2025 3:21 PM ET

The Michigan State Spartans currently hold the longest active streak in the nation for consecutive NCAA Tournament bids with 26 straight, making the Spartan program one of the most talented and decorated in men's college basketball.

Even with 17 Big Ten regular season titles and consistent success that continues to put the Spartans in the tournament, does the lack of national championships hurt their resume as a program? Does MSU's impressive success year by year begin to spoil without the national acclaim?

It is extremely impressive how great the Spartans have been over the past 30 years with Tom Izzo at the helm since 1995, but they have only been able to muster one national championship since 1979.

Looking at other top programs, UCLA has 11, Kentucky has eight, North Carolina and UConn have six. The Spartans do not hold a candle to those programs just based off the sheer number of national titles. It always seems that MSU has a talented team, annually, but cannot seem to win it all.

It is tough to understand how the Spartans have not returned to the mountaintop since the Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell days in 1999-00. The number of star Spartans and NBA veterans is comparable to some of those fellow legendary schools, but MSU just has not won the big one much.

Even though they lost both times, the Spartans' bitter rival, Michigan, actually made it to a pair of national championship games. The Spartans have been only once since 2000 when they lost to the Har Heels in Detroit.

When speaking on the consistent success of the Spartans, both takes can be true. There are few programs that have continued to put out a winning product every single season for multi-decades, but the other side of the coin proves that MSU is on a lower tier due to a lack of national titles.

That is the goal of every season for MSU, with the standards that are held, but they have fallen short of that goal for the past 25 seasons. Big Ten titles and Final Four banners can be hung at the Breslin Center, but the Spartans must find a way to elevate to that next level with a championship.

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