Ann Arbor SPARK’s popular football blog series is back for Michigan’s 143rd season! We use the football season as an opportunity to compare Ann Arbor to cities around the country represented by our U-M football competition. The question is always – how does Ann Arbor compare to other college towns in the U.S.?
The start of the school year in Ann Arbor is always an exciting time, and this year feels even more electric as our lives continue to trend toward a new state of normalcy following the pandemic. It is refreshing to see smiling faces as students are moving in and even the increased traffic in and around the city is welcomed as many of us emerge from working remotely. The first football game of the season not only marks the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year – it marks an official return to familiarity and routine!
With that being said — buckle up because here we go! We are diving right in with Michigan vs. Colorado State. Saturday’s game between the Ann Arbor-based Wolverines and the Rams of Fort Collins, CO marks the second meeting between the two football programs in history. The teams last met 28 years ago in 1994 with Michigan winning 24-14.
Fort Collins is a city in northern Colorado, about 60 miles north of Denver and has a larger population than Ann Arbor by nearly 50,000 people. Fort Collins is known as the Craft Beer Capital of Colorado where 20+ award-winning craft breweries are in addition to Anheuser-Busch. Fort Collins produces 70 percent of Colorado’s craft beer and seven percent of the craft beer in the U.S. Well-known companies like Otterbox and Hewlett Packard also call the city home.
While Colorado State does not outrank the University of Michigan in any categories according to the U.S. News & World Report, CSU typically ranks well on veteran-friendly lists. Colorado State is currently ranked #31 and #86 on the Military Times Best Colleges for Vets and the U.S. News Best Colleges for Veterans lists, respectively. There are seven main military bases in Colorado, so it is no surprise that they rank well on these lists.
Be on the lookout for our blog posts ahead of each game all season long and be sure to tag us when you share these interesting tidbits with your friends via social media! And, if you want more information like this or are curious to learn more about the Ann Arbor region and what makes it such a great place to live, work, and locate your business in, please reach out to our Director of Research, Melissa Sheldon.
Sources
Where do we get our numbers? And what do they mean?
- Population data comes from the U.S. Census, 2021 Population Estimates. Check out Ann Arbor’s data.
- Enrollment data comes from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Review University of Michigan data.
- Research expenditure data comes from the National Science Foundation. View the Rankings by Total R&D Expenditures.
- Educational attainment data comes from the US Census 2016-2020 American Community Survey Five-Year Estimates. We look specifically at the population over the age of 25, and the highest level attained. Check out Ann Arbor’s data.
- The rankings come from U.S. News and World Report unless otherwise noted.
