A few months back, at the height of the Republican presidential primary in Michigan, robopolling outfit Public Policy Polling (PPP) included some questions on football in their survey.
PPP released some new numbers on Friday, which includes some data on fandom for the Wolverines versus Sparty.
Some toplines:
- 41 percent of Michigan voters said they're fans of the University of Michigan; 31 percent root for Sparty, while 28 percent said they're unsure.
- As a matter of contrast, in February, PPP's numbers pegged fandom in Michigan as 37 percent Wolverines, 31 percent Sparty, and 32 percent "not a fan of either school." (a slightly different response option than May's survey).
- Breaking it down along gender in May's numbers, among women: 39 percent U-M, 32 percent Sparty, 28 percent unsure; among men: 44 percent U-M, 30 percent Sparty, 26 percent not sure
- As we saw with February's numbers, there's a slight departure in fandom among partisan lines (though that's not necessarily shocking). Democrats prefer Michigan over Sparty, 54-25 percent (21 percent unsure). Republicans break for Sparty, 44-29 (27 percent unsure). Independent voters slightly prefer Michigan, 36-27 percent, with 36 percent unsure.
A note of caution: PPP is an automated pollster (versus live response), and some outfits contend these results tend to be less reliable. PPP is also considered a Democratic pollster, because of the work it does for Democratic campaigns. I'm trying to add full disclosure; these numbers are intended more as a fun discussion point.
The May poll was conducted May 24-27, and has a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percent. The full crosstabs are here.
That's just in our state though. Internationally and in other galaxies, MSU is much popular.