Should I create 50 articles, one for each state for SEO for a national service based business?

I've recently seen a competitor write 50 articles, one for each state to talk about a service which does not change state to state. it looks like they came up with some general headers and then spun content into each state article and it appears to each article is almost 2,000 words. Do you think this is something Google would crack down on or is this a pretty common strategy? If it is viable, how do you handle the linking? Do you generally link them all back to the homepage or some page? If this is viable, do you think it's worth it? I'm trying to think of ways to make it more unique, such as reaching out to local legal or consulting groups to offer them a link on my page in exchange for either a link on their page or referrals etc. And of course I'll still do state by state keyword research. Thoughts? I will not be spinning content, but I do want to make sure if this is viable that I setup the structure well.