Today I had my annual eye exam. I have an optometrist in Ann Arbor that I have gone to for maybe 20 years. She is a good doctor, and she is hilarious, so I often wind up shooting the breeze with her for 15 minutes during each appointment about random topics. She is an MSU grad (class of maybe 1993) and I think that she was a chemistry major in undergrad, if I remember correctly.
At today's appointment she told me an interesting story about her son, who is 19 and who just finished his freshman year in college. Her husband is originally from Canada and has no affiliation with any US school other than living in Ann Arbor. Due to the proximity, he became a Michigan fan and essentially "brainwashed" (her words, not mine) her son into also being a Michigan fan (despite the fact that his mother, who is a doctor, went to MSU).
When it came time to look at colleges, her son had a variety of places on his initial list including Michigan, Toledo, Western, etc. When his mom asked him about Michigan State, his first response was "oh, Mom, there are tons of schools in the state that are better than MSU."
Now, let's stop to ponder the consequences of this statement. Frist of all, we all know that this is not true. By any reasonable measure, Michigan State is a top tier research university. There are only two top tier Universities in the state (although other schools such as Wayne State and Michigan Tech certainly have good programs in certain disciplines.) We all know that. But the fact that a very recent high school grad was brazen enough to make this statement to his MSU grad mom (who is a doctor) is shocking.
Obviously, there is only one place where this type of propaganda can come from: other Michigan fans. As I think all of us know, one of the core values of the University of Michigan is insulting the quality of education at MSU. We have all experienced it. Some MSU grads are even conned into believing it themselves. I could probably write a 1,000 page essay on this topic alone. Maybe I already have. Suffice it to say that this is not OK.
But the next part of the story might be even more interesting.
My doc's son was interested in engineering, but also interested in business. One day, he asked his mom if maybe they should check out MSU and his mom suggested that he look into packing science (which for those that do not know, MSU has the No. 1 program in the country). She picked a day during "Green and White" week in late June for the visit. It was 78 degrees with a clear blue sky in East Lansing. You can imagine what happened. Long story short, her son just finished his first year at MSU and he loves it there.
It sounds like he still might root for Michigan in football, but one year is all that it took for him to switch allegiance in basketball. ("Howard ran Michigan's program into the ground. But Izzo is a living legend.") I doubt the football allegiance will last.
Perhaps most interesting was my doctor's final comment. She said that her son now says that he doesn't like his old high school friends who are now attending Michigan as much anymore. He says that they have changed, and they are now really arrogant. Shocking, I know.
Nothing in this story is going to be a surprise to anyone who has been an MSU fan for very long, but it was interesting to hear to spelled out with real, on the ground information.
michiganstate.rivals.com
