Does the Tucker situation help or hurt MSU?

It's MSU.  So that means of course they're going to get a mulligan on the worst contract in NCAA football history and not be saddled with a mediocre coach.  We'll see if Tucker goes quietly or if he goes down swinging.

Short term: hurt

Long term: outlook remains cloudy

Dunno. The devil you know....

But the "he's our coach" crowd turning quickly into, "thank God he's gone" is amusing to watch

If MSU is able to land a Jonathan Smith (Oregon State), Mike Elko (Duke) or Chris Klieman (Kansas State) I would say MSU definitely failed upwards with one of those guys. Can they or do they get one of those guys? I'm highly skeptical. However those 3 would be a significant upgrade in coaching from Tuck. 

It will probably hurt MSU this season, especially with Washington, Maryland then @ Iowa they are staring down 2-3 pretty quickly and the train can spin off the tracks fast. 

However, a decent hire with the transfer portal these days could turn them around pretty quickly. 

There is not a chance in hell this helps Michigan State in any way, shape or form

You would have to be wearing your sparty green glasses to view this as a positive. Sure, it gets them out of that ridiculous contract, but it sure seems Tucker will not go quietly. I don't see a way where this ends without them paying some sort of settlement to make him go away. I also don't think the university is being totally transparent about what they knew and when they found out. With Whitmer posting a statement about getting to the bottom of things, I bet they are sweating. They are also trying to act like bringing Dantonio back will right the ship. Conveniently ignoring how bad he was late in his tenure and how tone deaf he has always been with these types of things in the past. It seems that the NCAA will have to grant the players some sort of hardship waiver to transfer when tucker is ultimately fired. The roster will be stripped, and an already terrible recruiting class will only get worse the longer this drags out towards NSD. A couple sparty coworkers actually think MSU will be able to land coach prime, or Bob Stoops. In my opinion I can't see any established name in coaching going anywhere near EL. Fickell's wife wouldn't go there because of the culture, which is now even worse. With the B10 expanding I see no way for MSU to be in the top half of the conference for the next decade. Long term rebuild incoming.

I have posted his resume so many times, he is a HORRIBLE football coach. Literally one of the worst football coaches of all time.  We WANT him there forever.  MSU getting rid of him, especially not paying him all that money, GREATLY helps them.  We want Tucker there as long as possible.

It has the potential to help if they don't screw up their next hire.The program has not been going in a positive direction with Tucker, but they could make it worse by hiring another Bobby Williams or Muddy Waters.

Both!!!

Reading the thread title, my initial thought was "who cares?"

Reading the thread I'm going with "who knows?"

It all depends on the hire and they could literally hire almost anyone.  This is Sparty.

This absolutely hurts MSU.
Tucker is setting this up for a lawsuit if he ultimately gets fired. Settling this out of court is still going to cost MSU at least $20 million, IMO.

This also hurts recruiting for obvious reasons.

Finally, it’s hard to imagine a top tier head coach willing to walk into that dumpster fire in East Lansing.

My guess is that they give the keys back to Dantonio who already stuck it to MSU once, which as it turns out, is exactly what they deserve.

Replacement value: unknown. Fairly safe to say probably not a grand slam hire. 
 

Settlement value: unknown. Tucker is going to demand $. Too much TBD.
 

Settlement time: unknown. It seems clear that Tucker and this woman want to argue the facts. Too much TBD.

In terms of coaching this year, I can’t see how that helps. In terms of recruiting this year, I can’t see how that helps. But next year? Who knows. Replacement value unknown, settlement time unknown…

If I’m a head coaching candidate, guess what I would ask MSU for in my contract? Guaranteed money… that’ll be a fun negotiation. 

It feels like there's going to be a significant settlement, so they may not really be getting out from under the contract.  But they get to move on for whatever that's worth.

Money can't buy class, and with MSU's failings as an institution, it's probably not even a top 5 job in the Big Ten.

Long-term, it absolutely helps them.  He was a disaster of a coach.

And if you believe the RCMB posters, they will be getting Coach Prime, so there's that. 

How can things get any worse? Their starting QB from last year is starting at Auburn and, while not exactly lighting it up, has the Tigers at 2-0. Their top receiver from last year transferred and has 4 TDs in his first 2 games, including showing out in a nationally-televised matchup. They have maybe 2 guys worthy of a pick in the 2024 draft. Maybe. Their 2024 class is currently only ahead of IU and NW in the B1G. And with this MeLLLLLLL kerfuffle, how many of them will stay committed? I suppose they could post a winless season, but to get any worse from where they are now would almost require something catastrophic, a la the Univ of Chicago.

This program put itself in a tunnel, and, as of right now, there isn't even a light at the end of it.

Helps. Mel Tucker was guaranteed to lose them a lot of games over the life of the contract. Now, they can hire an up-and-comer from G5 or even the ACC/B12, with all the money they have. Leonhard, Narduzzi, et all would be upgrades from Tucker. Big win for MSU over the mid- to long-term.

As a side note, I talked to my neighbor whose son is a PWO at MSU. He said the AD had a virtual meeting with all of the parents after this leaked out. The parents asked many questions, but according to this parent, the AD pretty much shut down every question - with the usual "we can't comment about an ongoing investigation" stuff. This parent, and many others, were not pleased at all (although he said this termination will turn out to be a blessing).

I think it's a big negative. The school just kinda got past the pervert gymnastics doctor scandal and now your most high profile athletics employee gets canned over sex pest allegations. They didn't can him so quickly to get out of the contract, they did so because the non-football people there know that they need to do all they can to avert permanent damage to their institutional reputation.

Of course, if the next guy they hire is a great hire and a program builder type then it could turn around for them. But that's a big unknown, of course, and it could also go the other direction.