Michigan State University
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Michigan State University (MSU) is a university in East Lansing, Michigan near the state capital of Lansing. Michigan State University is known for its programs in education, agriculture, hospitality business, packaging, and veterinary medicine. Michigan State University was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan in 1855 as an act of the Michigan Legislature. It was the first agricultural college in the United States. The school served as a prototype for future agricultural institutions as defined by the Morrill Act. In athletics, the university competes in the Big Ten Conference, winning three Rose Bowls and two men's basketball Final Fours.

The Michigan State campus is located in East Lansing on the banks of the Red Cedar River. The campus defines and dominates life at the university. With its 5,200 acre (21 km²) campus, 2,000 acres (8 km²) of which are developed, the campus it one of the largest single university campuses in the country. The size of the campus, combined with the copious amount of trees, the lack of a centralized quadrangle, and the relative lack of straight thoroughfares, often confuses freshmen, visitors, and other newcomers. The unique layout of the campus polarizes visitors, who either love its beauty, or despise its inefficiency.

The Michigan Constitution of 1850 called for the creation of an "Agricultural School", either as a part of the University of Michigan, or as an autonomous institution. U-M President Henry P. Tappan tried to convince the legislature to build the agriculture school in Ann Arbor, but the secretary of the agricultural society, John C. Holmes argued that the young farmers would not get the attention they needed in the established university. After five years of debate, Holmes' argument won out, and in 1855 the legislature of the State of Michigan passed a bill establishing the nation's first agriculture college within ten miles of the Michigan State Capitol. Thus was formed the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan. By 1857, the school had erected three buildings on the banks of the Red Cedar River, and classes were ready to begin.

The school's inaugural class graduated in 1861, but there was no time for an elaborate graduation ceremony. The American Civil War had just begun, and the college's first alumni had been drafted into the war effort. Around this time there was a conflict of personalities amongst the faculty, and the college nearly imploded. The administration changed the curriculum into a two-year program, and the school adopted the less-unwieldy name of State Agricultural College. The name stuck, but the curriculum changes failed, and the school switched back to a four-year program. The following year, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, making a national model out of the school. The schools establishment as a Land Grant institution lead to the establishment of a Mechanics program, so that farmers could learn how to fix farm equipment. In 1876, the college created a program for women, making the school co-educational. By 1909, they had added a program in veterinary science as well. By this time there were many other agricultural colleges in the US, so the school changed its name to Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.).

In 1925, M.A.C. petitioned the state of Michigan to remove the word "agriculture" from its name, but the University of Michigan opposed the name change. As a compromise, the state government gave it the moniker of Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (M.S.C.), though the school rarely used the "Agriculture and Applied Science" part of its name. On its hundredth anniversary in 1955, M.S.C. became a university: Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science, but the state of Michigan didn't allow the university to remove its "agriculture" moniker until the ratification of the Michigan Constitution of 1964. It was then that MSU finally dropped the words "Agriculture and Applied Science" from its name. Since 1964, the school has been known simply as Michigan State University.

The school's sports teams are called the Spartans. The mascot is Sparty. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Big Ten Conference; its hockey program competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Michigan State has been involved in the most-attended hockey and basketball games in history. On October 6, 2001, the Spartans set up a hockey rink in the middle of their football stadium, Spartan Stadium, and played their historic archrival (see below), the University of Michigan before a crowd of 74,554. On December 13, 2003, Michigan State and Kentucky played basketball in front of 78,129 at Ford Field, a domed stadium in Detroit.

Michigan State is also home to many teams that may be less well known such as Varsity Rowing and Kendo. The MSU women's rowing team has made it to the NCAA championships for the last 6 years. Michigan State University Sailing Club is located on nearby Lake Lansing and competes in MCSA sailing regattas across the country.

The Spartans have several athletic rivalries. Their traditional archrival, particularly in football, is the University of Michigan. The ascent of the Men's Basketball team under Tom Izzo, coupled with the recent struggles of the U-M men's basketball program, has rendered this rivalry less competitive, and other Big Ten schools such as Illinois and Wisconsin have gained greater prominence as rivals. However, the Spartan rivalry with U-M remains important, as it dates back to the days when U-M was still the state's largest university, and MSU (then M.A.C.) was a small agriculture college aspiring to be a rival Big Ten university. Their ice hockey rivalry has been referred to as "the fiercest rivalry on ice."

MSU has several other rivalries. MSU is one of three Big Ten teams, along with the University of Michigan and Purdue University, to have an annual non-conference football game against the University of Notre Dame. In recent years, MSU's men's basketball team has had an annual faceoff with an Atlantic Coast Conference school (Georgia Tech in 2005) as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Many MSU hockey fans consider Lake Superior State a big rival, and a growing rivalry in football is taking hold with Penn State - like MSU, a land grant college - as since Penn State's addition to the Big Ten the teams have met annually in their last conference football game of the season.