Is the University of Michigan a contender for a national championship?
"Michigan has to beat OSU and win the Big Ten," Mike Valenti, an avid Michigan State fan, said during his show Wednesday, adding the team has no track record in recent history of being a contender.
So, is it still a possibility?
Valenti believes winning at that level is why coach Jim Harbaugh was brought here, though there's no evidence the school "is any more than a regional power."
Harbaugh was supposed to be special, a game changer, a paradigm shift, but he's accomplished so little that "national title stuff seems to be off the board."
Valenti said Michigan fans have to pick between lowering the bar or changing their expectations. He added that school's program is a "have not" in the battles against haves and have nots and said the school only sits at the adult table out of pity and because they "sell a lot of T-shirts."
But still, he said, fans kid themselves about the team's potential every year. "Your profile is bigger at Walmart or on TV than it is on the actual field," he said, adding the team is "a story, a fantasy, a fake." He compared the current team to a guy whose uncle was rich and left you money, but you didn't do anything to earn it.
It's never been Ohio State or Alabama or Oklahoma or any other "real power," he said.
"You're just the douche who walks around with a sweater tied around your neck because Aunt Biffy left you money," he said. "You've never been that."
