Nick Saban is Returning to MSU...

... as the head coach of Alabama, when the Crimson tide come to Spartan Stadium in 2017 for the return leg of a home-and-home series. (Scared ya for a sec, didn't I?)

MSU announced three future non-conference opponent deals today, including the Alabama tie. The others are an extension of the Notre Dame rivalry through 2025, with two 2-year breaks (2014-15 and 2020-21). That first break, in 2014-15, will be filled by West Virginia.

This marks a significant upgrade from the future games that had been announced for the next few years. State is scheduled to play Florida Atlantic in 2010 and 2011, South Florida in 2013 and 2017 and the odd date with the three-headed not-quite monster known as "Directional Michigan".

State fans should see right through this. It's a chapter straight out of Tom Izzo's book titled "Play anyone, anywhere." It shows Mark Dantonio's not content to Montana State his way to victory (I'm still pissed about that scheduling decision, by the way). And it shows he won't accept the program being content with beating up on kids when there are giants to fell.

I, like every other State fan, have been praying for nine years that MSU would schedule a Nick Saban-coached team. Finally, we can exact some measure of revenge from him leaving in the dead of night for Baton Rouge and the LSU job. Getting a chance to stomp a mud hole in the lore of the vaunted SEC, right in its most storied stadium, is just icing on the cake.

We've waited this long. What's a few more years? Let's just hope Saban doesn't turn tail and leave before we get our chance.