As just about everyone knows, Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack early Sunday morning after the Spartans’ unbelievable overtime win over Notre Dame.

Dantonio, 54, has since had an angioplasty and been released from the hospital. When he will return to the sidelines is yet to be determined.

Heart ailments are no joke. It’s good Coach D’s wife was able to get him to the hospital shortly after he began to take ill, or the talk around East Lansing may have been on something other than Coach’s, um, guts in calling for a fake field goal down three in extra play to Notre Dame.

Someone did decide to make light of a very serious situation, though, and it was totally uncalled for.

Matt Patrick, a morning radio host for South Bend, Ind., news/talk station 95.3 MNC, Tuesday morning got in front of a camera for a short video podcast and said God caused Dantonio to have a heart attack because MSU cheated the Irish. His reasoning was that the play clock had expired before the snap on the game’s final play.

“The moral of the story is you mess around with the Fighting Irish, you cheat on the last play of the game, overtime, and beat the Irish, God is going to get you,” Patrick said.

A little research found Patrick, a 30-year radio veteran, Tuesday was hosting just his seventh show with the station, which leads me to believe his comments served as nothing more than a way to gain listeners and draw traffic to the station website.

More research found Patrick is an avid Notre Dame supporter, which would normally raise an eyebrow, but most radio host have strong ties to teams in their area and make their feelings known.

He has since issued an apology in video form on the station’s website after reports of several Spartan fans calling the general manager of the station voicing their displeasure with Patrick’s distasteful, classless, idiotic remarks — and after pressure from said GM, I presume.

The comments shouldn’t have ever been made.

I joke all the time about games giving me heart attacks. As an MSU fan and alum and well-known sports psycho, I make that joke frequently. I decided to come up with some new material after Dantonio’s episode because heart ailments among college football coaches is becoming an alarming trend.

Florida coach Urban Meyer retired then unretired after suffering a heart attack last winter. Northwestern head coach Randy Walker, 52, died following a heart attack in July 2006.

The job is a stressful one. Running practice and watching film 20 hours a day; not being able to spend ample time with your family and friends; and worrying about 100-plus kids and hoping they don’t decide to do anything stupid.

When episodes such as Dantonio’s take place, they’re no laughing matter.

Maybe the guy was just mad his team lost. I’d be upset, too, if I supported a team that replaced one coach, Charlie Weis, with a (slightly) slimmer version — Brian Kelly, who coaches the same style Weis did. Neither is known for their defense, which has failed the Irish in each of the last two weeks. There are already rumblings Notre Dame fans are souring on Kelly.

Maybe Patrick wanted to deflect from the fact Notre Dame is the most overrated program in college football the last 25 years.
The last time Notre Dame football did anything significant, cell phones looked like laptops and MTV still featured music videos.

What big-time recruit wants to play there these days? No 17-year-old kid cares about the history of Notre Dame. No 17-year-old kid cares enough to learn the history of the Irish, either.

Maybe God hates Notre Dame. How many times in recent years has the team played well enough to get fans’ hopes up and made it to a BCS game only to get destroyed by a better team?

Patrick was talking about karma when he made his comments. If there were any real karma, he’d be searching the classifieds right now.

The last time MSU played Ohio State, then-true freshman Terrell Pryor looked like a combination of Randall Cunningham and Doug Williams, as the Buckeyes had their way with the Spartans on their way to a 42-7 smashing.

After several prayers, somehow, Ohio State came off MSU's schedule for two years. That will prove to be crucial this season and is one of four reasons I see the Spartans playing in the 2011 Rose Bowl.

No Ohio State on the schedule is good for MSU

The Spartans for the second straight year avoid the Big Ten’s Team of the Decade: the Ohio State Buckeyes.

How this happened, I don’t know. But I’m as thankful for it as washed-up stars are for reality show checks. Had OSU been on MSU’s schedule last season instead of, say, Purdue, the Spartans go 5-7 and don’t get those extra practices leading up to the Alamo Bowl.

Not playing the Bucks this season is a Godsend for an entirely different reason — its the difference between finishing 9-3 and having a good season and going 10-2 and possibly having a special season.

Make no mistake: Ohio State will win its record sixth straight Big Ten title this season. But the No. 2-ranked Buckeyes will be playing for a much bigger prize than the Rose Bowl trophy. I see Ohio State going undefeated and winning the BCS National Title — partly because I think they’re that good and partly because I don’t think they’ face off with an SEC team in the title game. The Bucks return all their playmakers on offense and feature one of the best, most experienced offensive lines in the country. Add that to a defense littered with NFL prospects and you have the recipe for a national title win.

OSU getting to the title game leaves the door open for the Rose Bowl to select a second Big Ten team, which I believe (Seriously, I do. Stop laughing!) will be the Spartans. That would send MSU to its first Rose Bowl game since 1988, where it beat USC, 20-17. How long ago was that? Michael Jackson bought the “Neverland” ranch that year; “Rain Man” was the top grossing film at the box office; Nintendo released “Super Mario Bros. 3,” which I still have yet to beat; and Milli Vanilli was formed.

One thing not in MSU’s, or any other Big Ten team’s favor, is a new BCS rule going into effect this season that states the Rose Bowl must take a non-BCS team this year (most likely, preseason No. 3 Boise State) if one is eligible and the Rose loses one of its conference anchors. For that to happen, one or both of the anchors (Pac-10/Big Ten) would have to play in the BCS championship game.

I don’t see that happening, though. I think Boise State will lose its marquee game Monday against Virginia Tech. That loss would likely knock the Broncos out of the top 10. With its schedule, it would be next to impossible for Boise to end up in the top two at the end of the season.

With that, I'm picking MSU and Oregon State to meet in Pasadena on New Year's Day.

It’s our turn. We're next in line.

Since State’s last Rose Bowl appearance, eight Big Ten teams have appeared in the “Granddaddy of them All” — Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin.

That says a lot more about how awful MSU has been over the last 20-plus seasons than it does about the depth of the Big Ten.

But it’s our time. It has to happen this year.

One of the reasons I’m so confident about this prediction is because of one of the most undervalued units in college football.

Part III coming tomorrow