They didn't deserve to get in from my view, but it was the win against Baylor that likely did it for them.
As I said I think you could have made an argument for MSU / UVA to not be in the dance.
But if I were to play devils advocate and defend Michigan St., here is how I would do it.
Strength of schedule 14th in the country. We were 44. They Only played four quad 4 opponents we played 9.
Their SOS is not over inflated by their conference only like someone from the B12. Their OOC SOS was 44. We were 226.
Win against Baylor (N) by 22 when we lost to the same team on the road by 18.
Win against fellow bubble team Indiana St.
Win against 13 NET Illinois at home.
Our two big wins plus SJU (2) are better than those big wins for them. But not a monumental margin. @ Providence and @ Butler look like OK / decent wins now. Nothing Quad 1 spectacular.
They played AZ (lost by 6) Duke (lost by 9) Purdue twice (lost by 5 and 6). We played other top teams and got absolutely crushed.
We only have 1 more total win than them. And 2 less losses. Not a huge difference either.
they were 15-14 Q1/2/3, we were 11-12
Lastly their NET is 25 and ours is 67.
I thought our big wins could put us ahead of them but the overall body of work you can say that MSU has a case to be in over a team like Seton Hall.
Besides the UConn win where does our resume out class theirs?