This entry is about a yearly showdown between the University of Michigan and THE Ohio State University called The Blood Battle. No, this is not a football game or a basketball game. Indeed, Michigan won in 2010, so you sports fans know that I must mean something else.

The Blood Battle is a friendly - dare I say loving? - competition between the two universities that is held during the two weeks prior to the traditional fall football game and entails donating blood. At Michigan, stations are set up all over campus, including the building where the Department of Psychology is housed. I assume Ohio State does the same thing.

Which school gave more this year? It was a close competition, but in 2010, Michigan students, faculty, and staff members donated 2615 pints of blood versus the 2515 pints donated by folks at Ohio State, exceeding in both cases the donations made last year. I have been lecturing on the Blood Battle this entire semester in my positive psychology class and providing Michigan with a hedge, suggesting that the statistically-sophisticated way of scoring the outcome would be to prorate the amount of blood donated by student enrollment: 42,000 at Michigan versus 55,000 at Ohio State. But that's really pointy-headed, and people who need transfusions don't need prorated ones. They just need the blood. So forget the hedge. It is estimated that every pint of blood donated saves three lives, and between our two universities, 15,000+ lives have been saved.