Well, it's been a month so it's time to write about nothing again.
ESPN had a very interesting poll on their website today asking the question "How do you feel when your favorite team loses a close game in multiple overtimes?" And the two options were: "Proud of the team" and "Devastated."
Overall, and at the time I'm writing this, it was 26% proud and 74% devastated. Most of the country falls fairly close to these numbers but interestingly some areas stand out.
Every state, except for Alaska, has devastated winning with at least a 2 to 1 margin. Alaska, while overwhelmingly "devastated" had the lowest level of devastated answers at 62%. West Virginia and North Dakota tied for second place at 67%. The trend forming here is that each of those states don't have top level professional sports teams. In fact every state who has devastated at 70% or lower doesn't have a top level professional team. (Kansas, at 69%, is the "nearest" with the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals who play across the river in Missouri.)
I guess it makes sense, since in most of those "under 70% devastated" states, college sports is the main draw. So it is understandable that for a young college team the feeling is pride instead if disappointment.
Interestingly, on the other side are those states that come in high on the devastated level. New Jersey and Massachusetts came in at the highest levels of devastation with 78%. In fact, in New England it spread out of Massachusetts into Vermont and New Hampshire which both came in at 77% devastated levels. Now it's a litter harder to explain these but for I'll give it a try.
For one, I'll use my "warm weather sports theory" which essentially states that the warmer the weather is in a state, the less the state tends to care about team sports and, to a greater extent, professional sports (this is evident in my award winning "ESPN's Sports Guy is retarded - Part 2" article where each of the top "Lousy" and "Indefensible" sports cities is in warm weather climates). Additionally, these areas tend to have rabid professional fans (South Jersey is a Philly sports area and New England is Celtics and Red Sox land) while not having any particularly outstanding college sports teams.
Finally, it is interesting to note that the international poll (76%) came in slightly above the overall poll (74%) which makes sense since the overwhelming emphasis in international sports is on professional sports and not collegiate sports.
