FanPulse Results: Both Basketball and football confidence take a slight dip for MSU fans

I think it’s fair to say that the majority of Michigan State basketball fans did not expect the Spartans to lose three times in the team’s’ first eight games, but that was the reality. After losing in embarrassing fashion at home to Duke, the team rebounded to open Big Ten Play with a win against Rutgers.

Confidence for the men’s hoops remains high overall, but has been slightly dipping over the past two weeks. Confidence was at 100 percent for the first four weeks of the season, but it decreased to 94.4 percent in Week 5 and has lowered even further to 89.5 this week. Nothing to fret about, but Spartans fans understand this team has some kinks to work out moving forward.

The Spartans, currently at 6-3 overall, will look to earn another victory on Saturday afternoon against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (5-5) at Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit. MSU then closes out 2019 against Northwestern (away), Eastern Michigan (home) and Western Michigan (home). MSU then starts 2020 off against Illinois in the Breslin Center as it enters the Big Ten schedule for the rest of the season.

Football:

Football confidence remains very low. Last time we checked in it was at 26.7 percent. Since then, Michigan State defeated Maryland to earn bowl eligibility and was placed in the Pinstripe Bowl. That’s all positive and fine and dandy, but wasn’t enough to sway Spartans fans’ opinion. In fact, confidence actually went to 21.1 percent.

Michigan State, believe it or not, still has a chance to finish the 2019 season with a winning record. The Spartans battle the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (8-4) in the Bronx on Dec. 27 at 3:20 p.m.

National Question of the Week: Who will be crowned as national champion?

1. LSU: 50.5 percent
2. Ohio State: 24.8 percent
3. Clemson: 20.8 percent
4. Oklahoma 3.9 percent

Unsurprisingly this went in the exact order of seeding. LSU won the overwhelming majority of the vote with more than 50 percent, while Ohio State got about a quarter of the votes. Those are your two clear favorites. Clemson seems like a dangerous team — Not only are the Tigers defending national champions, they’ve also won the title in two of the past three years, yet it seems nobody is really talking about them being a contender. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is just trying to prove it belongs here.

However it shakes out, it will be fun to watch teams that actually have strong offenses.

Note: The top-25 was not voted on this week, so there is no data to be shared there.