State Of Michigan Trophy

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Back in September 2003, Pontiac started 'The Pontiac Challenge', to track the head-to-head competition between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University for the whole school year. They divided the school year up into 3 sessions (Fall, Winter, and Spring), and awarded a trophy to the winner of each session, with the current winner keeping it in the case of a tie.

Not too surprisingly, UM won (or tied) every session for all 3 years that Pontiac sponsored the Challenge (2003-2004, 2004-2005, and 2005-2006). Also not too surprisingly, Pontiac lost interest when the Challenge got too one-sided. So, after the 2005-2006 season, they dropped it, but I picked it up. However, I thought their setup with the 3 sessions and a goofy scoring system could be improved, so I changed it to a single session (the whole school year), with 2 points for each win, and 1 point for each tie.

From 2006-2010, I used Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to track the results. I used the built-in spreadsheet-to-HTML converter in Excel to generate the Web pages, which I then had to upload to my Web site. It was clumsy, to say the least, so I wrote a PHP script, with some Javascript, to use MySQL to generate the Web pages 'on demand'. I also entered all the old data for the seasons going back to 2000-2001, which is as far back as I can find reliable information.

A quick look at the 'Season: Summary/Sport: All' page will show that UM has won the State of Michigan Trophy every year for the last 25 years except twice (2009-2010 and 2023-2024).

Date Sport Venue Score Points Comments Article
UM MSU UM MSU UM MSU
09/19/2025 (W) Field Hockey Ann Arbor 5 0 2 0   Wolverines Blank Rival MSU in Big Ten Opener Field Hockey Drops Conference Opener at #8 Michigan
09/26/2025 (M) Soccer Ann Arbor 1 2 0 2   U-M Suffers First Loss of 2025 to Michigan State in Battle for Big Bear Michigan State Retains the Big Bear Trophy with 2-1 Win over No. 5 Michigan
09/27/2025 (W) Volleyball East Lansing 0 3 0 2   Michigan Falls at Michigan State in B1G Contest Spartans Sweep Wolverines in Battle at Breslin
10/09/2025 (W) Soccer Ann Arbor 0 1 0 2   Wolverines Falter Against No. 18 Spartans in Rivalry Match Watson, Henning Help Spartans to 1-0 Win at Michigan
10/25/2025 (M) Football East Lansing 31 20 2 0   Haynes, Marshall Power Wolverines to Rivalry Win Over Spartans, Paul Bunyan Trophy Michigan State Falls at Home to No. 25 Michigan, 31-20
11/16/2025 (W) Volleyball Ann Arbor 3 0 2 0   Michigan Stifles Michigan State Offense in Sweep Volleyball Falls at Michigan
12/05/2025 (M) Hockey East Lansing 3 0 2 0   Ivankovic, Top-Ranked Michigan Blank Rival No. 3 MSU in Series Opener #3/3 Hockey Falls in Series Opener to #1/1 Michigan
12/06/2025 (M) Hockey Ann Arbor 1 3 0 2   Michigan Settles for Split With No. 3 MSU in Setback at Yost #3/3 Hockey Knocks Off #1/1 Michigan on the Road
01/09/2026 (M) Wrestling Ann Arbor 43 3 2 0   Rolling in the New Year: Wolverines Dominate MSU in Big Ten Opener Wrestling Falls at No. 12 Michigan in Big Ten Dual Opener
01/30/2026 (M) Basketball East Lansing 83 71 2 0   Wolverines Stifle Second-Half Spartan Comeback to Win Battle at Breslin No. 7 Michigan State Falls Short Against Michigan
02/01/2026 (W) Basketball East Lansing 94 91 2 0 Overtime Wolverines Prevail in Overtime at No. 13 Michigan State No. 13 Michigan State Drops Overtime Thriller to No. 9 Michigan Sunday
02/01/2026 (W) Gymnastics Ann Arbor 197.425 197.525 0 2   Season-Best Score Yields Four Titles for Michigan at Michigan State No. 15 Gymnastics Takes Down No. 10 Michigan with Season-High 197.525
02/06/2026 (M) Hockey Ann Arbor 4 3 2 0 Overtime Michigan Storms Back, Finishes Off No. 2 MSU in OT on Perron's Power-Play Marker No. 2/2 Hockey Sets Sights on ‘Duel in the D’ After Overtime Loss
02/07/2026 (M) Hockey Detroit, MI 2 5 0 2 Duel In The D Michigan Settles for Split After Loss to No. 2 MSU at Duel in the D No. 2 Hockey Retains Iron D Trophy, Defeats No. 1 Michigan in Detroit
02/15/2026 (W) Basketball Ann Arbor 86 65 2 0   Wolverines Top No. 13 MSU to Finish Season Sweep No. 13 MSU Women Stopped on the Road by No. 7 Michigan
03/08/2026 (M) Basketball Ann Arbor 90 80 2 0   Wolverines Cap Historic Regular Season with Senior Day Win Over No. 8 Michigan State No. 8 Michigan State Falls Short in Regular Season Finale to Michigan
03/18/2026 (M) Baseball Ann Arbor 2 0 2 0 Non-conference game Wolverines Shut Out Spartans in Midweek Contest MSU Baseball Downed By UM Wednesday In Non-Conference Contest
04/10/2026 (M) Baseball East Lansing 4 2 2 0   Barr Throws Complete Game as Wolverines Top Spartans in Series Opener MSU Baseball Downed By UM Friday Night In Series Opener
04/11/2026 (M) Tennis Ann Arbor 4 2 2 0   Michigan Upsets No. 20 Michigan State No. 20 MSU Men’s Tennis Downed In Final Regular Season Road Match
04/11/2026 (M) Baseball East Lansing 6 4 2 0   Pace's Homer Powers Wolverines to Series Win Over Michigan State Spartans Clipped By Wolverines Saturday
04/12/2026 (M) Baseball East Lansing 5 10 0 2   Michigan Stumbles in Series Finale at Michigan State Spartans Double Up Wolverines Sunday, 10-5, In Series Finale
04/18/2026 (W) Tennis East Lansing 4 1 2 0   Michigan Downs MSU, Wins Fourth Consecutive Big Ten Championship MSU Women’s Tennis Drops Regular Season Finale
05/01/2026 (W) Softball East Lansing              
05/02/2026 (W) Softball East Lansing              
05/03/2026 (W) Softball East Lansing              
Total   30 14  

Record UM MSU
Home 8-4-0 (0.667) 2-7-0 (0.222)
Away 7-2-0 (0.778) 4-8-0 (0.333)
Neutral 0-1-0 (0.000) 1-0-0 (1.000)
Total 15-7-0 (0.682) 7-15-0 (0.318)

Please send any updates or corrections to Drew Montag (drew@montag.org)

Script last modified: Wednesday 09/24/2025 16:11:56 EDT

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