It has been a big week in sports in the Michigan area, and most of it not for great reasons.  With the display by the Lions on national TV on Sunday and the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday, football will be the topic today.

With their star defensive player already suspended for kicking a Packers offensive lineman, the Lions played the Saints on the prime time Sunday night game and the worst of the Lions came out.  Detroit committed 11 penalties in the game, including numerous personal foul penalties, with the worst being against Brandon Pettigrew.

Pettigrew pushed an official during the game who was trying to keep an altercation from happening between Pettigrew and a Saints player.  He has since apologized for his actions during the game, but it is a growing trend for the Lions.

The Lions are gaining a reputation as a team who can’t control their actions and showing the youth that this team has.  Detroit needs to learn how to grow up quickly before they can learn how to win big games like they played on Sunday.

As for Michigan State they played in the inaugural Big Ten Championship game, losing 42-39 to Wisconsin.  The loss cost the Spartans their first Rose Bowl game since 1988 and for the second consecutive year are on the outside looking in on the BCS.

Last season with MSU tied with Ohio State, OSU and the Big Ten itself pushed for the Buckeyes to get the at-large bid in the BCS for the Big Ten (Wisconsin went to the Rose Bowl).  This season, the Spartans had the best record in the Big Ten and had to play in the championship game instead of just earning the bid to the Rose Bowl like years past.

Now Michigan State has no one to blame but themselves for not making the Rose Bowl, but the fact that Michigan has made a BCS bowl and the Spartans have not is not justice.  The BCS system is a fraud (which is a topic for another day) and the best team in the conference did not get rewarded for the season it had.