Michigan State certainly has everyone’s respect for what it’s accomplished over the last six seasons, but the Spartans had a chance to finally cement themselves as an elite program on Thursday night.

The Crimson Tide crushed those hopes in the Cotton Bowl with a 38-0 annihilation.

If you somehow missed the third quarter during your New Year’s Eve festivities, your jaw may have dropped as slowly as the ball did last night. Alabama only had a 10-0 advantage at halftime, but that lead swelled to 31-0 before the fourth quarter got underway.

Here’s what Spartans fans and other fans were saying after the game on mlive.com:

“The only thing that keeps the starterds from jumping off bridges and tall buildings is knowing they beat Michigan on a fluke play. Pathetic.”

“Truthfully, Sparty’s best shot was this season, yes. But you can’t discount what they did this year. They’re the 1st B1G team, other than Ohio St, to contend for a Nattyy since 97′ Kudos to them.”

“What an embarrassment for the BIG. What’s worse is the inferiority complex they have is sure to grow in spades. They were not the best team to represent the conference. Just the luckiest.”

“Another embarrassment for the Big 10. Thank God for Ohio State’s championship run last year because Michigan State looked pathetic.”

“Alabama went with a 4 man rush cover 2 and were able to get a ton of pressure on MSU. This game had all the makings of a talent mismatch. The only team that would have beat Alabama tonight on that field, was Alabama.”

“The big 10 defenses have a longstanding habit of playing a boring/standard front 4 defense. Unless you have 4 Joey Bosas on your team, they need to put some heat on!”

“Sparty embarrassed themselves and the Big 10 last night. Look in the mirror.”

“Tough game to watch. Now I know what it’s like for UofM fans to watch their team get slaughtered by osu every year.”

“Will MSU program recover from this?? It has to virtually destroy a recruiting program!”