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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Soccer is exciting after all, scientists confirm |
| 2006-06-29 |
| So there! American football, basketball and baseball have millions of followers, but they can't match soccer for sheer excitement, says a team of scientists. The reason is its element of surprise, claim researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US. Football is more likely to produce an unexpected result, such as a "giant killer" win in the FA Cup. Scientists analysed results from more than 300,000 games played over the past century. They reviewed five sports: ice hockey, football, baseball and basketball in the US, and English football. The team decided to make unpredictability - how often a leading team is overcome by an opponent with a worse record - the best measure of how exciting a league is. "If there are no upsets, then every game is predictable and hence boring," co-author Eli Ben-Naim told New Scientist magazine. The results of the analysis showed that the "upset frequency" was highest for soccer, followed by baseball, hockey, and basketball. American football came last on the list, and so was labelled the least exciting sport. But there was a twist in the tail. When the scientists looked only at data from the past 10 years, English Premiership football and baseball swapped places. One interpretation of the finding might be that soccer has become more predictable in recent years. |
| Posted by:Cloluter Groger9698 |
| #38 The reason is its element of surprise Yes, the surprise that no one falls asleep while watching it. I prefer indoor sports, if you catch my drift. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-06-29 21:06 |
| #37 Actually, stage dives can result in a Yellow Card. In this weeks Ghana vs. Brazil match, one of the Ghanaians what sent off the field after getting a 2nd yellow for a staged dive. The Korean Team is also good at acting as they had a couple of obvious (but not carded) falls when they played the frogs. |
| Posted by: flushing_kenny 2006-06-29 21:00 |
| #36 Add in the offsides and obstruction rules which both suck and turn the game into a drudge instead of a contest of speed and guile. |
| Posted by: Crolump Glereper5426 2006-06-29 20:46 |
| #35 I think soccer could be made more exciting if players who took dives were sent off. That would significantly reduce the incentive to do so. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-06-29 20:42 |
| #34 Frank -- NoKo Kimmie like pressed ham..hmmm |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-06-29 19:29 |
| #33 #32 Xbalanke - and with oil paint too! ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-06-29 18:34 |
| #32 Watch soccer? I'd rather paint grass and watch it dry as it grows. /apologies to the writer of the Zits comic strip. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2006-06-29 15:55 |
| #31 CA - that was a misquote - actually Madeleine Halbright said: "My legs are like 400lbs of pressed ham" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-06-29 15:54 |
| #30 TW, T-1 = tied for first. My Step-Dad is really the only guy I've ever met who could care less about all sports minus watching boxing. He says why should anyone care/root for any team of millionaire crybaby's -it's not like you're on the team. When a team wins what do the fans really get out of it but false euphoria. Or, in the great words of Sonny from a Bronx Tale "if yer dad loses his job is Mickey Mantle going to help yer dad out? No, Mickey Mantle doesn't care about you so why should you care about Mickey Mantle. F*ck Mickey Mantle." I don't care about most sports players either but I like watching the sport itself. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-06-29 15:17 |
| #29 As "exciting" as imaging Mad Halfbright leg press 400 lbs. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-06-29 14:59 |
| #28 T-1 is a sport? I thought it had something to do with computer access. Speaking as someone who pretty much ignores all professional sports as much as possible (heretic!!! boo!! HISS!!!!!), it's clear that all sports are equally exciting to afficianados, and for the rest of us the interest scale slides depending on how much of the time visible things are happening (no, the pitcher shaking off the catcher's signs doesn't count), and how necessary it is to know what's going on for lunchtable small talk. All else is just posturing... and y'all are truly cute as you do so. Carry on! ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-29 13:49 |
| #27 My only issue w/soccer as I watched it during the Cup was all the dives these guys take and the cheap calls they get. That's true. I foresee that FIFA will soon have to change the rules to clamp down on this sort of crap, otherwise it will get progressively worse. If you get fouled and are hurt or pretend to be hurt, you should exit the field for 10 minutes to fully recover (and the offender gets a yellow card). That would cut down the pretending. That and the match fixing...see Italian soccer, among others. |
| Posted by: Groger9698 2006-06-29 13:32 |
| #26 My only issue w/soccer as I watched it during the Cup was all the dives these guys take and the cheap calls they get. Worse than basketball some times. Maybe it's a function of the rules that I don't like. Seeing these guys fall down after incidental contact and constantly looking or trying to draw a foul is very lame to me. I remember playing soccer as kid and our refs wouldn't call half the crap they called during the cup. More pussification of an otherwise fine sport I guess. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-06-29 13:11 |
| #25 But if the less-talented team wins more often, then they're not exactly less talented are they? |
| Posted by: Groger9698 2006-06-29 12:46 |
| #24 I don't think a sport is more exciting simply because the less-talented team wins more often. I'd find that pretty damn annoying, in fact. |
| Posted by: WhiteCollarRedneck 2006-06-29 12:06 |
| #23 An American asks the world two questions: (1) Do you remember the soccer war fought between El Salvador and Honduras. (2) Do you really want the worlds dominant military power to become obsessed with soccer. Let us ignore soccer in peace. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-06-29 12:02 |
| #22 1) NCAA basketball (postseason) 2) NCAA Football (regular season) 3) Women's tennis (not so much for the sport itself, though) |
| Posted by: Hupush Phomomble4609 2006-06-29 10:36 |
| #21 I remember when Cleveland Browns fans lost control when the referees forgot to read their own rulebook.The funniest stuff ever. |
| Posted by: djohn66 2006-06-29 10:35 |
| #20 the only reason to recommend soccer is the scale of their riots. You rarely see tennis or golf fans attack each other, and while most NASCAR fans pack heat, they remain under control :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-06-29 10:26 |
| #19 <---- pub crawling. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-06-29 10:11 |
| #18 My favourite sports in no particular order (either watch or play). Getting a bit old for boxing and football now though Boxing Fly-fishing Cricket Football (soccer to the heathens) Im so bloody English .... tally-ho chaps ! |
| Posted by: MacNails 2006-06-29 10:08 |
| #17 And not a single one of youse has yet mentioned rodeo ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-06-29 09:49 |
| #16 #1 So these "researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory" have nothing better to do ? Time to audit their grants, I say. Given that LANL has leaked more info than the VA or more than the NYT could publish [if they could understand it], be happy they're wasting their time in front of the tele. LANL is welfare for the academically gifted, who like the management of the NYT believes that they're above the restraints of normal human beings. |
| Posted by: Sniper Chease8428 2006-06-29 09:32 |
| #15 The Next Summer Olympics Presidente Vincente Fox has announced that Mexico will not Participate in the next Summer Olympics. The reason is that; Anyone who can run, jump, or swim has already left the country. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-06-29 09:16 |
| #14 Damn djohn, you're right, I totally forgot about NASCAR. For me that would be #2, just slightly ahead of hockey. The PGA would normally be last except for the big-4 tourneys. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-06-29 08:37 |
| #13 Tractor pulls are great and I go see one of them than soccer. 1. UF and Pro Football 2. Hockey 3. Nascar :) 4. Rugby 5. Sumo Wrestling |
| Posted by: djohn66 2006-06-29 08:23 |
| #12 The sporting events I like to watch in order: T-1. UFC/NFL/NCAA Football 2. NHL 3. NBA/NCAA Basketball 4. Soccer 5. Baseball |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-06-29 08:20 |
| #11 Any of yall ever watch a tractor pull? Or a Horse pull? Wooohooo!! |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2006-06-29 08:05 |
| #10 I beg to differ, soccer sucks ass. I'd rather watch billiards matches. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-06-29 07:48 |
| #9 Cricket is the world's most exciting sport. 1.5 billion South Asians can't be wrong. Seriously, I won't get satellite TV (there's no cable here) because I would spent too much time watching cricket which I love. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-06-29 07:48 |
| #8 I think I'd go with Barney. I'm a big NFL fan, but I wish my DirecTV carried more rugby matches. Started watching them on Star Sports while stationed in Japan and loved them. Plenty of action, lots of scoring and heavy hitting. |
| Posted by: Steve 2006-06-29 07:35 |
| #7 Your TV choice today is soccer or Barney Ha ha hee! |
| Posted by: 6 2006-06-29 06:55 |
| #6 //Posted by Penguin 2006-06-29 01:06|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top // lol!!! |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2006-06-29 04:10 |
| #5 Soccer = excitement > what is wrong wid putting these two words together, and why espec is the Left not = never responsible??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-06-29 04:06 |
| #4 Soccer is an 2nd tier sport, in terms of action, grace, organization, etc.. I'd rate it somewhere between ice hockey and swimming. Still, the World Cup is a pretty cool spectacle. I watch it every 4 years the same way I watch some track & field every 4 years at the Olympics. Only the World Cup, to me, is bigger and better than the Olympics. As with the Olympics, the nationalism adds another interesting dimension. The very aspects that make soccer boring (the degree of difficulty of mounting any kind of offense, the ambiguous rules on fouling and the player's sneaky attempts to exploit them) add to the pressure and the drama and the fact that billions are watching what is a once and a lifetime event for all except a few lucky bastards. But I can't be bothered paying much attention to the stuff that happens in the intervening 3 years. |
| Posted by: Monsieur Moonbat 2006-06-29 03:09 |
| #3 If they wanted to make soccer more exciting they'd get rid of the offside rule. Gary Larsen could have done a terrific Hell cartoon along the lines of "OK, folks. Your TV choice today is soccer or Barney." |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2006-06-29 01:59 |
| #2 In bingo you are always surprised by who wins, maybe all the Euros should watch that instead of soccer. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2006-06-29 01:06 |
| #1 So these "researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory" have nothing better to do ? Time to audit their grants, I say. And only a real pooter would call football the least exciting sport and soccer the most exciting. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2006-06-29 00:16 |