 the michiganâmichigan state football rivalry is an american college football rivalry between the university of michigan wolverines and michigan state university spartans. the winner of each year's game receives the paul bunyan trophy. the teams first played in 1898 and have met almost every year since 1910; the competition became a conference rivalry with michigan state's entrance into the big ten conference in 1950. ==series history== michigan leads the series 68â34â5. the series record for the paul bunyan trophy (as of 2014) is 35â25â2 for michigan as the trophy wasn't added until michigan state became a full member of the big ten in 1953, at which point michigan led 33â9â3. a home-and-home series did not begin until the 1958 season. through the 1957 season, the game was played in ann arbor 44 times and played in east lansing only 6 times. at the start of the trophy game series, michigan state began a nearly two-decade period of dominance. from 1950 to 1969, msu went 14â4â2 against the wolverines. after the hiring of bo schembechler in 1969, michigan dominated the series for the next four decades, going 30â8 from 1970 to 2007. but the pendulum swung back towards the spartans following the hiring of coach mark dantonio in 2007, with michigan state winning six of the last seven contests. michigan holds the longest winning streak at fourteen (1916â29) and michigan state held a winning streak of four (four times, most recently in the 2008â11 seasons) in the series history. ==trophy== 250px|right|thumb|the paul bunyan trophy on display at michigan state in 2009 the game's [[tr
College_football_rivalries_in_the_United_States Michigan_State_Spartans_football Michigan_Wolverines_football