Emma from Port Huron asked us:
"Like all Michiganders, I grew up with the MSU versus U of M rivalry. As a proud Spartan graduate, I remember many iconic moments like trouble with the snap and Kenneth Walker's five touchdown game. My question is, what are the origins of this rivalry? Were there moments early on that escalated the tension between the two universities?"
In the modern era, friends and family throughout the state gather together in the fall for an annual tradition. It goes something like this.
One calls the other, "Little Brother."
The other responds, "Walmart Wolverines."
And then, "Michigan vs. Everybody."
Followed by, "Okay, Connor Stalions."
The phantom second. A missed two-point conversion. Braylon Edwards triple overtime. Trouble with the snap. The tunnel brawl.
This is the shorthand and shared language spoken by all U-M and MSU fans throughout the state.
It's personal because it's family. But why and how did this rivalry begin?
For the answer we turned to Chris Vannini. He's a reporter for The Athletic who wrote about the origins of the interschool strife, and the series of events that deepened the rivalry. Here's what he told us:
The rivalry began with the founding of Michigan State
"The second Constitution for the State of Michigan in 1850 established the creation of an agricultural school, and there was some argument over where that school should go. The University of Michigan wanted to have it, the State Agricultural Society potentially wanted to put it somewhere else. They eventually decide they'll put it within ten miles of Lansing, which is the remote capital at that point in time. And ultimately in 1855, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was created, and would become later Michigan State University.
"And even in the ensuing years and a couple of decades, the University of Michigan attempted to kind of acquire the school or shut down part of the school or grab parts of it. And so these conflicts continued in the many decades in the late 1800s, after the school had been founded."
The football rivalry began in the early 20th century, before MSU was in the Big Ten, but just as their program was getting good
"Michigan was upset that it perceived Michigan State to be violating various rules, whether that involved payments to players, whether that involved academics, stuff that we talk about now, a hundred years later, these arguments have been made. And so as Michigan State started to get better, Michigan didn't want a lot of schools in the Big Ten to play Michigan State. They didn't want to validate the program, help the program grow and get more attention for these various reasons that it felt like it wasn't following Big Ten rules, even though it wasn't a member of the conference. And by the 1930s, schools outside of Michigan in the Western Conference basically refused to play Michigan State as a result, in part because Michigan State was so good and in part because of the rule breaking. And Michigan State long suspected there was a Michigan led boycott of the games.
"But Michigan would keep playing Michigan State, for a couple of reasons. One, it helped the attendance to have Michigan State come to Michigan and play the games and sell more tickets, but also state political pressure, like these are kind of the two biggest schools in the state and the politicians want them to play each other."
Michigan attempted to block Michigan State as the tenth Big Ten team
"Michigan State immediately wanted to get what is now an open spot here in the Big Ten... Michigan State's case was that it was the largest state-supported institution of the Big Ten states that wasn't in the conference. It felt like that they had everything in place.
"The Big Ten was the premier conference outside of the Ivy League out in the East. And John Hannah, the president of Michigan State, knew this was the moment for Michigan State to take that step forward. If they could get into the Big Ten conference with all these prestigious state schools, that would elevate Michigan State finally, to the level that they had long wanted to be at.
"Michigan State knew it would need help from somewhere else. And that turned out to be Minnesota. Minnesota had a beef with Michigan because Michigan had alleged that Minnesota had committed some sort of violations... and Purdue was in a similar boat. So you had a couple of schools in there conference who were sort of upset with Michigan throwing its weight around and feeling like it ran the conference. And one of the ways some of the schools felt like they could push back on that was to bring Michigan State into the conference."
Is Ohio State the bigger rival for Michigan? Chris says yes.
"I think for Michigan fans, the biggest rivalry they look at is Ohio State. And for Michigan State fans, the one they look at most is Michigan. That makes it a little bit awkward.
"The way I've always looked at it is that... I think Michigan wants to beat Ohio State more, but they don't want to lose to Michigan State more. That's the loss that hurts more because you have to hear about it every day at lunch, at the water cooler for the next 365 days. That's part of the rivalry."
