College football fans only get 12 games a year guaranteed to them. Michigan State fans, by and large, now have one less game to enjoy this season.

Because most folks east of the Pine River will either not be awake after 2 a.m. on Sept. 21, when MSU’s game at USC ends, the day after it begins, or won’t be in any state to appreciate it.

This is the trade-off for college sports selling its soul to television. Sometimes we have to keep the devil’s hours. It doesn’t have to be this way. But we’d all have to agree to take some of the money out of the sport, to pay coaches and athletes less, and for Big Ten schools not to have some of the advantages they do. And that ain’t happening.

And so TV runs the sport. And, on Saturday, Sept. 20, the Spartans and Trojans were among the most attractive

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