Big Ten awards: Dantonio is Coach of the Year

Mark Dantonio is the Big Ten Coach of the Year. Greg Jones and Dan Conroy first team All-Big Ten according to coaches and media. Edwin Baker first team media. Aaron Bates first team media and second team coaches.

    On the second team, the media had Charlie Gantt, Eric Gordon and Marcus Hyde. The coaches had Gordon, Bates, D.J. Young, Chris L. Rucker, Johnny Adams and Trenton Robinson. So yes -- MSU's entire secondary is second team All-Big Ten. That's called a turnaround.

    Five others made the honorable mention line: Kirk Cousins, Mark Dell, B.J. Cunningham, Jerel Worthy and Joel Foreman.

    So that's 16 Spartans earning some kind of honor, plus Dantonio. Not a bad haul for MSU.

    Players of the year: Denard Robinson and Ryan Kerrigan. I have no real issues with anything on the teams, although I'm surprised the coaches didn't even give Baker a second team nod. And that they went with Anthony Santella on the first team instead of Bates (as if they're media going strictly by punting average and not taking into account everything Bates did this season). I also can't believe neither of the Iowa receivers registered on the media first or second team.

     Of those 16 Spartans, by the way, eight are seniors and eight should be back in 2011.

    Back to the bowl "situation" briefly, ESPN's Adam Rittenberg does a thorough job of stating the Spartans' case for a BCS bowl.