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MSU's Dantonio: 'We'd have been national champions' if playoff existed last season

Gary A. Vasquez / Reuters

Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio believes the Spartans would have won the national championship last season if the new playoff system being introduced this year had been in place in 2013.

Dantonio said the following at his Big Ten Media Days session on Tuesday:

Do I ever think about that? Yeah, I’ve thought about that. I thought we’d have been national champions, to be perfectly honest with you. I think we would have had a shot to do that. Coming out of the end of the season, we were playing great football. We were believing in ourselves.

Were we there at the beginning of the season? No, but we played our best football in November into the championship game and Rose Bowl. We were like this [going up]. That wasn’t necessarily the case for some other teams.

Michigan State was ranked No. 4 in the BCS at season's end, earning a berth in the Rose Bowl where the Spartans defeated Stanford 24-20. MSU won 10 consecutive games after losing to Notre Dame on Sept. 21.

Wonder what Florida State thinks about this. Over to you, Jimbo Fisher.

[H/T SI, via Coaching Search/247 Sports]

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