Elyse Hompstead, a junior at the Bay-Arenac Career Center and Bay City Western High School, is one of Route Bay City’s 2023-24 Voices of Youth correspondents. The Voices of Youth program seeks to capture the youth perspective and narrative in our community. Voices of Youth is made possible with support from the Bay-Arenac ISD.
During October, students and staff at Bay-Arenac Career Center were feverish for the University of Michigan versus Michigan State University game, held on Sat. Oct. 12.
To get everyone’s opinions about the big game, I created a Google Survey. The survey asked two of the most controversial questions: Who is going to win the football game? If you had to choose, which of the two universities would you go to?
Creating this survey, I had no clue which university was the most preferred. In the last four years, each team has won two games and each is an amazing university.
'Anytime we win, it’s a good feeling. My favorite memory is when Michigan beat Michigan State in 2019.'
- Bay-Arenac Career Center student and U-M fan Dakota Nordstrom
Instead of going into this without having an opinion of my own, I gained some knowledge through a few interviews.
I asked David Dickson, a Michigan fan and one of my classmates, what influenced his decision on choosing which team to be loyal to. He replied with “The reputation of the team.”
This is understandable because the team must be likable for anyone to prefer them.
I asked another one of my classmates, Dakota Nordstrom, who is a Michigan fan, his favorite sports moment between Michigan State and Michigan.
“Anytime we win, it’s a good feeling,” he replied. “My favorite memory is when Michigan beat Michigan State in 2019.”
The last classmate I interviewed was Brianna Hennard, who is a Michigan State fan.
I asked her why she chose to be loyal to Michigan State. She responded with this reasoning. “I chose to root for Michigan State because my mother attended their university.”
This gave me a good insight on why people choose a team. They might be influenced by family or by the reputation of the team.
After the interviews, the 98 responses in the survey were documented.
It was clear to see that most people thought that the University of Michigan was going to beat Michigan State. In my survey, 72 people predicted U-M as the winner while only 18 chose MSU. The final score was 49 to 0, with U-M winning.
The second question showed that people would rather go to the University of Michigan. Of those surveyed, 38 people chose U-M and 30 people chose MSU.
To help gain even more opinions, Mrs. Lisa Forrest’s Marketing and Management class was hosting a charity event.
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Voices of Youth correspondent Elyse Hompstead surveyed students about which university they would rather attend. The University of Michigan won a decisive victory in the poll.
The class sold Michigan and Michigan State paper footballs for $1 each to gain everyone’s thoughts on who they thought was going to win. All profits go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA,)
From Oct.16 to 18, the sale was included on the school announcements. This helped bring more awareness about MDA and the upcoming football game. By doing this. more opinions were created and it helped show which team was most preferred in the Bay-Arenac Career Center.
Once again U-M took home the win in the Career Center with 75 people wanting Michigan and 36 wanting Michigan State.
This charity event raised more than $100 for MDA.
Most of the Career Center wanted the University of Michigan to win this year's football game. Who do you think will take home the winning title in 2024?
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