An Ethological Assessment of Allegiance to Rival Universities in an Intermediate City

In-group loyalty and inter-group competition are important aspects of behavior in humans and other social species. Patterns of in-group loyalty and inter-group competition are expressed in the modern context of American college football, including territorial aspects. ESPN ranked the Michigan–Ohio State NCAA Division 1 football rivalry as the greatest North American sports rivalry. “The Game,” as many fans know it, is held at the end of the regular Big Ten Conference season. Toledo is a mid-sized city in Ohio, with its northern limits at the Ohio-Michigan border. Although in Ohio, Toledo is geographically closer to Ann Arbor, MI (home of the University of Michigan), than to Columbus, OH (home of the Ohio State University). Conventional wisdom holds that team loyalties are divided among local residents, sometimes even within the same household. Merchandise featuring each school is widely available in the Toledo area and stores typically display Ohio State and Michigan items adjacently. We used an ethological approach to assess the level of allegiance for each school among Toledo residents during the 2013 American college football season. Despite the closer geographic proximity to the University of Michigan, there were more displays of allegiance to the in-state university, Ohio State University.