Poll: 41% of Mich. voters prefer U-M; 31% like Sparty
- 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.
Ooh, he card reads good.
Galactically, that makes sense because aliens are green.
But how does that jive with the Emperor of Space being Zoltan Mesko? Was he elected by MSU fan aliens or is it king of like being a King on earth and passing the throne down through first-born sons?
He's a Shapeshifter.
and the gap will only grow as Dantonio extends his domination in California, Florida, Louisiana, Monrovia, Peru, and Inner Mongolia.
Yes, but we own Bolivia...
don't forget Lower Slobbovia and Outer Douchestan.
While they are definitely "partisan" in that they work for one party, historically they are very accurate. Nate Silver over at fivethirtyeight.com does analysis on pollster accuracy and if I recall PPP is usually among the top group.
I am not sure how to comment on this post without violating the "no politics" rule, so I will simply say that the R/D breakdown is very interesting.
...likely reflects associated U-M/MSU regional loyalties.
The raw data is somewhat interesting, but I'm way more interested to know if the partisan difference holds after accounting for other demographic variables that affect party choice.
Most in Detroit are UM fans, and the majority of people from Detroit are Democrat.
MSU fans will brag about this and start talking about a certain giant global retailer.
Edit: And apparently somewhat thought this was an overrated comment. But it's a true comment. MSU fans love to brag about how they have less fans because they usually just have fans that graduated from MSU (or so they claim), not "Walmart Wolverines." It's stupid, but that's what MSU fans will perceive this stat in trying to favor it towards MSU.
Many Sparty grads will somehow read 31% as less than 41% and assume that these rankings are in numerical order so that they're 10% better than us...
/ basic stats FAIL
With their math skills they will be asking what does this "percentage" word mean.
Republicans come on!
First the government is too big.
Then Obama wasnt born in America.
Now you think Sparty is good at Football?
I'd feel the urge to mention the rules, but this is actually just hilarious.
corroborates the above.
Though posterity will record that it was Hillary Clinton supporters (i.e. Democrats) who began the Obama birth certificate nonsense.
Wouldn't these numbers be skewed in favor of MSU if they are a majority republican fan base and the results are from a republican primary?
The sample is all Michigan voters, in both instances. The February survey - not this one - was conducted during the GOP primary, and had a subsample of GOP primary voters.
59 out of 100 residents of the State of Michigan suffer from a mental disability.
EDIT: Or at the very least, poor taste.
The 26% of men who are "unsure" should be ashamed of themselves - there is no middle ground on this issue
Damn independents make up your mind!
For real. I bet they're all women.
I think Sparty's 31% would be higher if they weren't so uncoothe towards the "non-alumni" fans (i.e. Walmart shoppers). I love that we're open to all fans (alum and non-alums) and I'm sure Dave Brandon is as well.
Weird results. I bet alligiances in the city of Detroit has something to do with the party breakdown. Also interesting that the women vote for Sparty was higher than for men, and yet democrats favored UM (you'd there'd be a relation b/w female and democratic vote). Also interesting that the school fandom by party changed so radically in a few months. The first report was:
Obama voters, 40 percent favor Michigan, 27 percent favor Sparty. Of McCain voters, Michigan still leads, at 35 percent, followed by Sparty at 34 percent. (Corrects 53 to 35 for McCain)
And now:
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.
not exactly the same question in both polls, but still I am surprised by the huge difference.
As others have stated, the loyalties of Detroit and Ann Arbor probably have more to do with the party breakdown than any sense of "Democrats inherently like Michigan more than Republicans"
I think the difference is that Independents were treated as their own group in one poll but not the other. Figure that:
- Democrats strongly prefer UM
- Republicans strongly prefer MSU
- Independents are in the middle
The recent poll has all three groups, which shows the sharp difference between Democrats and Republicans. The older poll has only Obama voters (Democrats + some independents) and McCain voters (Republicans + some independents). The differences were watered down in that poll by the requirement that everyone who voted had to be either in the "Democrat" group (Obama) or the "Republican" group (McCain).
You may remember 'Public Policy Polling' from such polls as...
this little gem from 2010:http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/free-press-creating-michigan-news
Here's the routine; Public Policy Polling commissions its own poll. They do popular-interest items and they seem to have a penchant for college football. (Can anybody think of anything, religion and politics included, that stratifies and divides demographic groups like college football?) PPP releases it as press release. The newspapers, looking for lazily-supplied free content, publish it. The readers love it. PPP gets its name into press. Free content for the paper, free adverstising for PPP.
hence the R/D breakdown is exactly what we should expect. I don't think many people would dispute that the regional loyalty breakdown is West side for Sparty, East side for the Maize and Blue. Party breakdown is West side for the GOP, East side for the Dems. QED
There are a lot more U of M fans in Kalamazoo then MSU fans, atleast of all the people I know.
Michigan fan in Kalamazoo here, and by far there are more MSU fans and grads living in Kalamozoo than Wolverines.
PS: I've heard of a certain Republican who happens to be a Michigan grad. He's lived in Lansing since 2010 and will live there until at least 2014.
Just saying these are all pretty false presumptions.
That's really fascinating that the fan bases are so stark when it comes to republicans and democrats
Race may be a big confounding factor here. In Metro Detroit, at least, African Americans tend to be pretty strongly pro-U-M - and of course they are overwhelmingly Democratic.
I'd be curious to see what the overall data is for white and black voters in the state.
of the people are dumasses!
"Morans" photo, part II.
10% are msu grads.
The other 21% = "Well I could've went to Michigan if I wanted too." hence we have this delightful little image...
But what do pollsters feel about CMU's and WMU's chances this year! That's the REAL story here.