In this week's podcast, Professor Mike Lewis breaks down the week's biggest storylines in sports fandom, college football, and the NFL.
Then, he dives into his Next Generation Fandom Survey to reveal recent findings on gambling and sports gamblers.
Listen and subscribe to the podcast here:
Transcript:
Mike Lewis 0:08
Hey, welcome, everyone. Welcome to the fandomanalytics the Fanalytics Podcast brought to you by the Emory marketing analytics center and your co host this week, Mike Lewis and Doug Battle. How you doing, Doug?
Doug Battle 0:19
I'm doing great Mike. The Georgia Bulldogs survived a scare against
Mike Lewis 0:24
mystery, dropping dramatically in the polls to number two, I believe right? Big
Doug Battle 0:29
dropped to number two. I gotta say they looked like the best team you've ever seen the first three weeks of the season and the last three, they don't look like a ranked football team. That's, I don't know, college sports. There's this level of unpredictability that keep it fun, but there's also a level of unpredictability and the fan bases and what might happen in those stands from week to week. This week. What caught my attention was the Battle of the Old Miss fraternities. And probably I was gonna say a 300 section. I don't know that Ole Miss has a 300 section there stadiums pretty small. But two fraternities just going at it. And I have
Mike Lewis 1:07
I have questions. Okay. Go for it. Shoot me. Right. Gorgeous student. You're more. You grew up on Southern football? Yeah. I wear blazers, blue blazers, to a football game. Is that a common fraternity activity that
Doug Battle 1:21
I believe those are pledges. So I think the pledges the freshmen who are being welcomed to the fraternity are wearing those. And if I know anything about college fandom in the SEC, it's that, you know, if there's anything that the average college young man is more loyal to them their team than their university, it's their fraternity. It's the fraternity I thought I was gonna say fashion. Come on now. Now they have to wear those we saw it. You know, those Auburn pledges a few weeks ago with the giant popcorn bucket snake we discussed?
Mike Lewis 1:58
Oh, did it didn't come out which which France were fighting with each other?
Doug Battle 2:02
Gosh, I don't I don't want to speculate here. It's like when there's the injury in NFL game and the commentators start talking about I don't want to speculate, you know, don't want to
Mike Lewis 2:14
Twitter comments were pretty remarkable. I mean, they all go exactly just, it's almost like they're there's two groups of Twitter comments. One is saying it's, it's Chad versus Chase, I guess some sort of upper class shaming going on. And the other goes straight to you know, Lord owing it's shocking how many Twitter and social media folks are essentially MMA coaches. Right, right. Amazing critiques of the lack of, of the lack of elite violence skills amongst the pledge classes of those to Ole Miss.
Doug Battle 2:51
So are you defending the fighting style and form of these young men like, as a as a fighter yourself?
Mike Lewis 3:00
As someone that has spent too much time in martial arts gyms, for my advanced age, I'll be honest with you, you know, people go out there and go out there and hit a bag and put a video of yourself hitting a bag. I mean, I'm not talking about you. I'm just saying, in general, it is something that I think everyone thinks they can do. And it's just embarrassing. The first time you go out, you know, there was a Serena Williams, one of the all time great athletes of our time, I think, I don't know what she's doing an ad for but she was actually hitting a bag in that ad. And it's really kind of terrible. I mean, we you know, in the gym. Okay, so all over the place. I think it was a couple of years ago there was a Julio sorry, what's the Falcons receiver? Julio?
Doug Battle 3:46
Julio Jones? Yeah.
Mike Lewis 3:48
And he was playing kickball. And he looked totally inept playing kickball, you know, skills or skills and so
Doug Battle 3:58
I play basketball on it. You know, you wouldn't know that. That's a professional caliber athlete playing a different sport. I I've seen that all grown up. So yeah, I mean, with fighting, I'll say if I'm in a, you know, if I'm in a gym, and I'm walking up to a bag to take out some frustrations. I'm a little self conscious about it, because I know how silly people can look fighting. And I think the Ole Miss fraternity brothers embodied that that embarrassment that all of us have, you know,
Mike Lewis 4:28
they probably never thrown a punch in their lives. I mean, they probably thought about it a lot, or they thought about it with their friends, but they've never actually, let's say focused and develop the skills to do so. Yeah,
Doug Battle 4:41
I just I just love how football brings. I don't know why football specifically and I've heard of fights at other sporting events. You know, football games are notorious for their fights, but there's something there's just a level of rowdiness that college football in particular brings. You get enough people with that level of inner Even if they're rooting for the same team somehow they ended up taking each other out. We saw it at a Dallas Cowboys game. I think it was week one of the season. And it was like in the club level or it was in a you know, was in the kind of the ritzy or part of that movie theater of a stadium. And so football brings that out. And like I said, fandom in college sports, it's not just for the team, the university, but in this case, also the frat, and within a fan base. There can be two fan bases, and that's what we saw on Saturday.
Mike Lewis 5:30
Yeah, I mean, look, it's passionate spirit, right? I mean, that's the unifying thing and in fandom, right. I mean, it's now again, the Old Miss frat brothers fighting with each other, you know, rather than you know, someone, oh, it was Ole Miss Kentucky right. Rather than, you know, having a dust up or a Donnybrook. I love that word Donnybrook, with the, you know, the Kentucky visitors section. Piano seems a little bit more, I don't know, in spirit of the things but
Doug Battle 6:01
we realized there was a fight between Georgia fans after Oregon. Yeah, after Georgia absolutely beat down Oregon, I will say it's a little embarrassing as a fan base as a member of the fan base, to see to have your own. going at each other like that. I'd imagine Ole Miss fans feel a little bit of shame, but maybe even a level of pride if their fraternity brothers are the ones coming out on top of that fight.
Mike Lewis 6:24
I've always heard terrible story. I mean, again, you know, I talk a lot about SEC football in class about the level of passion, because I do think it's the most intense passion in America, and then always have the European students that are telling, well, you don't really know anything, because, you know, apparently, they'll pull guns and baseball bats with each other. But, you know, I always get the sense that it's surprising how few fights occur in the parking lots following SEC games. Because you guys are, you know, you guys, you guys live and die for this stuff. And so you know, you're walking out of Auburn after beating Auburn. That's, you know, it's almost like you want to put your head down, just get to your car and get out of town.
Doug Battle 7:05
I've been in that situation, I was in a position at a LSU game where a friend of mine she had parked far away and had to walk back to her car. So I walked her back to her car. And then I had to walk back to my car show on the other side of Baton Rouge. And I had it I mean, it was probably the most, you know, I felt like this is probably the most likely I am to ever be jumped there was a group of say, what? In a Georgia jersey, yeah, Georgia, Jersey, and LSU destroyed us that it was Joe burrow years, you know, and a group of LSU brethren surrounded me and were yelling their famous chant at me for miles of walking and throwing things at me and stuff. And it was not a very comfortable position. But on the flip side, I've been to lots of games. And, you know, going back to that same fan base LSU, I went to an SEC championship game, I think it was 2005, Georgia beat down LSU after the game walking out with some LSU, folks, and they were saying, hey, good game, like we deserve that. I think among a lot of fans, and the SEC, in particular, there's this and in sports in general, there's this level of understanding that we're going to pretend to hate each other, we're going to pretend to be hostile. But in reality, we all kind of know that this is a game, it's all kind of fake. It's all kind of a pretend thing where we we pretend to hate, but in reality, we're all just taking part in the same thing. And I actually enjoy having that experience with fans if I'm on the winning or losing side, because it's like, oh, that's there's a level of respect there that you don't necessarily see portrayed. But I think when it gets out of hand is when people lose sight of that reality. You know, I'm talking about what's fake and what's real. Some people lose, lose sight of that. And the hatred goes beyond this pretend make believe, Oh, we hate your players to like, there's actual violence in sports stadiums. I think that's what you're talking about in some of these soccer games and what we've seen in football stadiums across the US over the years as well.
Mike Lewis 9:01
Yeah. And of course, alcohol probably plays a major role. Doesn't matter if school
Doug Battle 9:08
doesn't help. But yeah, a fan of the week. I can't give it to the Ole Miss FRAC because it was you know, it was half pathetic and half. It was a drop. It was a drop, drop. You either thought it was pathetic, or you thought I don't know, there was a lot of comments. I think the comments were really the winners of that one people saying, you know, how many of these guys are saying well, my dad's a lawyer. So I got a kick out of that but the Vikings fan this week, there was a Vikings fan. I don't know there was one dress like a Viking one more like a night and he was seeing shouting something. I mean, these are they look like two crazy guys. And then one of them is shouting something toward the other team or opposing fans. You can't really tell. And the other fan who looks like a crazy guy turns and looks at him like did you just say that? And on the internet every ones like what did he say? That was so outrageous that this crazy person was appalled by it. It must have been horrible. I got a kick out of those two. I think that's probably my fan of the week this week. Gotta go NFL. Vikings fans are you know, I enjoy the culture up there.
Mike Lewis 10:18
Yeah, I'll admit I don't quite get the Viking. I missed the Viking fans
Doug Battle 10:24
of old right I miss playing indoors doesn't help.
Mike Lewis 10:27
Yeah, playing outdoors. I think they played in Bloomington prior to you know, building the domes up in the city. And you know, like, I want my Viking fan. I want him to look like a descendant of a Viking. You know, I want his name to be a fan with a full beard. And I want ice beard. Yeah, braided?
Doug Battle 10:46
Yeah. Yeah, this is as close as you're gonna get. You know, it's it's a very cushy NFL now where we've got the Vikings playing indoors. And this was as coaches we get I mean, a little bit. I don't know. I would say the one fan may have even looked triggered that in this guy was more of a Viking. So we've got triggered Vikings in the crowd nowadays. NFL fans are getting a little soft.
Mike Lewis 11:10
Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay, where do you want to go? Where you want to go to college football first. And then yeah, start with? Well, so I think you alluded to it. The playoffs? Well, you know, once the playoff, Paul come out the first one, we're probably two three weeks away, I think.
Doug Battle 11:27
Yeah, we're a couple of weeks out. I think the picture hasn't changed all that much as far as the contenders have been winning, although oftentimes whether it's Clemson, Georgia and Alabama have each had scares against lesser opponents. And one week will look like wow, this team is for real. And the next week will look like wow, this team could lose to anyone. Ohio State to this point, I think might be the the most consistent performer I wouldn't be shocked to see them creep up and maybe take that number one spot, come playoff playoff pole time.
Mike Lewis 12:05
You know, the way I'm looking at this and to me this is the part of the season where it's like I'm not, I'm not going to cast any aspersions on UGA for kind of losing, let's say a little bit of focus at this point. So it's like the mind part of the season, right where it's like, you know, college football tends to be front loaded and back loaded in terms of the marquee matchups. I mean, I was I've been looking at the schedules of some of these teams. You know, UGA had an interesting schedule at the beginning of the season look soft as all hell looked like they had to get past the class of the Pac 12 and Oregon, and then it was going to be smooth sailing until they played Alabama. And now there's a you know, there's a very highly ranked Tennessee team on the horizon. There's Florida in, you know, in Jacksonville, as always, there's a top 20 Kentucky program before you even get to Alabama or Mississippi. Ole Miss is number two and
Doug Battle 13:04
technically in the mix right now. Yeah, yeah.
Mike Lewis 13:07
So, you know, suddenly, it looks like UGA has. I mean, I'm not saying I suspect UGA good runs the table. But there's some challenges there. But like I said, I've been looking at, I'm looking at the schedules of all of these kind of contenders. You know, like, in some ways, the big 10 hasn't really started to play. Right. Yeah. You know,
Doug Battle 13:28
when they knock each other out, over the state has
Mike Lewis 13:31
faced Michigan or Ohio State? Yeah. So it's, it's gonna get interesting soon.
Doug Battle 13:37
Yeah, out of those three, it seems like there will be two that emerge, and maybe just one because they they play each other. Yeah, right.
Mike Lewis 13:45
I mean, it's hard for more than one of them to emerge out of the big 10
Doug Battle 13:48
Yeah, so that's that's kind of tough. And even in the SEC with right now people say Oh, Miss Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, you know, a couple of schools but a lot of them you know, Alabama Ole Miss will play Alabama and Tennessee will play Georgia and Tennessee will play. The winner of Georgia, Tennessee will most likely play Alabama. So that would be a second time. So over the you know, the later half of the season is where things really tend to take shape. My big takeaway from this discussion and just kind of observing the talk around college football early in the season, particularly looking at Georgia, is that man, we put a lot of weight into preseason rankings that may or may not be based on anything other than just pure speculation. And so going into the season and looking at Georgia schedule and seeing, wow, the only ranked team they play is Oregon. That's going to be their hardest game. And after that, it's a cakewalk until Alabama and the SEC championship. Well, they Smackdown Oregon and everyone's jumping to conclusions and saying this team's lock, you know, maybe Oregon wasn't as good maybe Georgia played out of their minds in week one, but and maybe Georgia schedule I certainly I don't know A lot of people that were predicting Tennessee to be a top 10 football team. I think they're number eight right now, at this point in the season, and so a lot of weight going into those preseason rankings and things tend to complicate a little bit as the season goes on Alabama, and a similar position where, you know, I don't think anyone suspected Tennessee would be such a tough matchup, that one's on the road for them. I don't think people expected them to struggle as much as they did early in the season and in some games against lesser opponents. And so, you know, it's just, it's why they play the game. And I'm looking forward to like, I think that Tennessee, Alabama matchup is going to be fascinating in a couple of weeks. It's gonna be, Bama certainly turned the corner, I think, from you know, since they played Texas and didn't look so hot. At that point in the season, they're starting to put the pieces together. But then Tennessee, we've talked about their fan base, that game is going to be in that stadium, once again, the fan base is going to be fired up. The football teams playing at the highest level they've played at and probably 10 years. And Alabama on any given week is susceptible to play down to their opponent or, you know, perhaps below the level of their opponent.
Mike Lewis 16:18
Yeah. But it's a beautiful thing, right? I mean, I to be honest with you, I didn't really thought too much about Tennessee, Tennessee, it almost faded from memory, but man, SEC has got to love having them back. And again, you know, in some ways, gonna highlight the difference between the SEC approach and the big 10 approach, right? Like the big 10 would never care about Tennessee, right? It's not not the right TV market. But man they bring something special they bring something to the product they do and I got a rockin was at Neyland Stadium. Yeah. checker board and a number one Alabama, you know, game day, we'll be there.
Doug Battle 16:57
Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't get much better than that. And, you know, you mentioned Tennessee being back, I think for Tennessee to officially be back. They're gonna have to lease the highly competitive with Alabama and Georgia, because right now, it's still early enough. And we've had seasons. I remember Butch Jones years. There were years like this where it felt like, hey, they are five oh, you know, they're going into their big run against LSU, Georgia, Alabama, and then they go loose by 40 points in those games. And at that point, you realize, okay, they this was a fluke, this you know, we were misled. I kind of wanted to be back. I'll say it for the sake of the SEC.
Mike Lewis 17:36
You know, it's like week one where Florida beats Utah. And we're like the Gators are back the swamps. Yeah, rocket. And so yeah, Tennessee could still they could add a note nine and three. And I don't think anyone would be really be surprised. Yeah. I mean, like duck, duck. I look at this. And look, we got Alabama, UGA. Ohio State, Michigan in the top four. I think only one of those big 10 schools makes it then we got Clemson USC, Tennessee, Penn State OSU. I mean, that might be the group that can make the college football playoff.
Doug Battle 18:08
I think so. But it's an interesting group. Because you look, you know, Clemson, they've played a lot of their hardest games on the schedule as far as ranked opponents, and they've taken care of business and some games where I think a lot of people expected them to drop one of those. And so they're kind of in the driver's seat moving forward, Michigan. They've got their work cut out for him with Penn State, Ohio State and perhaps and Michigan State and Michigan State and perhaps a conference championship game as well. Should they make it that far and Penn State in a similar spot, USC man there it's like every week we they come up and it's like they're still winning football games, you know?
Mike Lewis 18:52
You know what, Duggan away if the college football playoff ends up being Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and USC, I'm gonna feel a little bit disappointed. It's just too much. But if I was gonna get if I was gonna lay down money at this point in the season, that's what I would projects we're gonna
Doug Battle 19:09
say USC, it's like they're not that good, but neither is anyone that they play. This is just my personal opinion. Obviously, that's subjective. But you know, Oklahoma's
Mike Lewis 19:18
Little League World Series like the suddenly there's this team coming from like the, you know, from the the Middle East region.
Doug Battle 19:27
Yeah. Yeah, nowhere, Oklahoma state's another one, you know, beating Baylor that's kind of been the last two years a pretty big rivalry in terms of the Big 12 And which team makes it out. I just still feel like the Big 12 They all beat each other every year and cancel each other out. Go ahead.
Mike Lewis 19:48
Being an Oklahoma State fan, is that about the most painful kind of fandom there can be? You know, I mean, you're talking about a team that's almost like luck to me, Oklahoma State. I'm not gonna look up the records they feel like a perennial nine and three to 211 and one team always on the outside looking at always
Doug Battle 20:07
on the outside looking in beating Baylor that was that felt like their biggest competition but can't you see them dropping a game to Texas or Oklahoma or to Kansas or you know whoever later in the season and it costing them we've seen it so many times with Oklahoma State also think it would paint be painful to have to dress for Halloween every single week in that stadium orange and black. It just to me, it's never been I couldn't do it every Saturday.
Mike Lewis 20:34
You know, another team that's like that, that OSU kind of level of success but never gets over the hump would be the Wisconsin Badgers. Right? I mean, you know, usually winning, you know, the big 10 West, and then, you know, again, kind of tenant to kind of a team that, you know, never really gets the get, they don't get the glory, right, they get to go to the Rose Bowl once in a while, or some Florida bowl game, but never in that college football, never in the hunt, right? Never that ultimate prize.
Doug Battle 21:07
It's like them and Iowa, some of these schools with just the it almost it's like, no matter who their coaching staff is they're gonna have a borderline anemic offense with a quarterback who's a game manager, a really good offensive line, a really good running back and they run like three plays the entire season, and score about 17 points a game but give up about 15 points and, but then lose their two games that really matter. And that's their season. I've become a big fan of the Iowa fans that wear shirts that say I'm just here to watch the Ponor because they want the football so much like big fan of the punter. I like that just embrace who you are, embrace who your team is. And it'll be so much less painful.
Mike Lewis 21:57
Yeah, I mean, that that Midwestern kind of, you know, I mean, again, we should we almost need to do a special episode focused on the, the non Natali. You know that? Well, and I laugh about it, because back when Illinois was when Illinois basketball was in their heyday, you know, when they had Deron Williams and D Brown. And yeah, you know, they were really, they really had it go on for a few years. They were still losing recruiting battles. And the fan base will talk will talk relentlessly, almost they want to argue that we're elite now. And the answer is no, you're not elite, you're not Kentucky, you're not Duke, you're not Kansas, you will still lose nine out of 10 recruiting battles to those folks. And there's a lot of those teams, and there's a lot of those teams in college football, right. It's, it's just about, it's just about everyone outside of. And again, you know, it's I do think and we've talked some about this, there seem to be sort of almost a big three at the moment. Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, then there's this next group of Clemson and Clemson used to be in that sort of tight group to USC. And then below there, there's almost this other group, right this the Florida is the Penn State, so they kind of got a shot at Ole Miss. And it's interesting to live in each of those. Yeah, I
Doug Battle 23:19
think so. And I think that, especially with ESPN is coverage that tends to be so focused on Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State at this point in time, and then maybe Clemson some people, I know that people who aren't fans of those schools hate those schools just because of how much coverage they get. People. People are always why you know, ESPN is just all about Ohio State are all about Alabama, just the Alabama show. Like we want to see some talk and coverage about our team. So yeah, maybe we should do an episode that's just like the non Alabama, Georgia Ohio State show. And we get really in the weeds with Nebraska and Michigan State. And Pitt and West Virginia, some of these great football schools that just don't get enough love. But they entertain us every Saturday.
Mike Lewis 24:08
Here's always the question. What do you got to do to get to that level to get to that next level? Right? How many championships do you have to win
Doug Battle 24:17
Texas a&m thought you just spent a lot of money to get there. And now they're now they're talking about firing their coach. They're talking about buyouts and it's just never ending. I don't know that you can buy your way to that level. But I guess it was worth
Mike Lewis 24:35
I'm pretty sure there have been calls to fire Kirby smart. I saw a tweet.
Doug Battle 24:41
I saw a tweet after the game and someone said, you know, because of last year, and because of the recruiting, I still think we showed it fire Kirby and I was like, yeah, it is Is anyone actually advocating the Georgia fire? Kirby smart, but we see that I mean, you type in Nick Saban's name after a loss to Texas a&m last year. And there were some people that were saying they were, they were given up their season tickets and we're gonna, you know, never attend or pull for Alabama again and or whatever. You don't know how much of that is trolling. How much of it's real on the internet, but it certainly is the knee jerk reaction of sports fans, that makes sports fans reactions in and of itself entertaining for other sports fans.
Mike Lewis 25:34
Okay, Doug, let's, let's switch over to the NFL. You know, you mentioned that, you know, part of what makes college football interesting is that, you know, teams can look like world beaters one week, and they can struggle with state they can struggle with can stay right, they can demolish a top 10 team and then struggle with a team that may be an FCS team. You know, it's, it's, it's just the nature of sport. But, you know, I think we see that much more in the NFL. I mean, you know, the NFL, people forget, and the NFL probably leads, and maybe this was one of their gifts, right that they lead. They have the most overreactions week to week in terms of this guy has arrived. This is the next MVP. This is the next great team. And the next week, they lose and they're ending, you know, basically the whole league is the whole league is to into with a few three in one teams and a few one in three teams. Right. You know, the parity is a very real thing in the NFL. I don't know who the MVP of week four was. I think we're back to Josh Allen, frankly. But you know, well, you know, obviously, but mahomes or Josh Allen, right. And so we have this kind of, you know, overreaction cycle, I will tell you, the place where I'm not seeing the overreaction that I really wish they would and again, think about my perspective on all this. It is the the marketing guy, the branding guy that loves the stories and the narratives. So the Dallas Cowboys have a quarterback that is unimpeded.
Doug Battle 27:18
And what did I say? weeks back when Cooper rush to cover, I knew nothing about the guy. I knew zero about Cooper rush. And I just had this feeling looking at the past that this might end up being a controversy going all the way back to Tony Romo. God, I hope so. But I don't think they're, I don't think there will be but man I hats off to the guy. You know, I don't like the Dallas Cowboys, but hats off to Cooper rush the way he's played and even putting himself in a position who are people like us are having this discussion about? Is there gonna be a controversy in Dallas, Jerry Jones kind of stirred the pot with that a little bit a few weeks back saying you know, I hope that there is I hope he plays so well that we're talking about getting rid of Dak Prescott or maybe, you know, sitting him on the bench or using him as a backup. So that's a underrated story in the NFL without a doubt. You talked about Josh Allen, obviously, bills ravens was a big one. You know, with Lamar, we've talked about Lamar Jackson all season and what a year he's had so far. And for him, I still feel like the perception is that he's not top tier even if he is because it seems like the Ravens lose these games consistently when he's playing? Well, when he's playing against elite teams or elite competition in the playoffs, not a lot of playoff success with Lamar Jackson and Baltimore. I know the Baltimore fans are sick of hearing about it. But the reality is, it just seems inevitable in these games that you know, Josh Allen is probably going to come out on top and doing that this week. But all the hype about Josh Allen and we've talked a lot about Justin Herbert, we tend to always as fans be looking for the next guy. And every now and then someone reminds you that, you know there's no there's no use doing that because there already as the guy and that guy right now as Patrick mahomes. His play when he rolled out and looked like he was maybe going to run it and then did a little push past the endzone that it's like I forgot I forgot the Patrick mahomes is still Patrick mahomes Just because he won the Super Bowl and then last one and then you know, there's new guys, there's new toys and there's new when you get a new toy, your less toys or your old toys are less cool to you all of a sudden and Josh Allen and Justin Herbert have been the new toy in the NFL, but mahomes Beating Tom Brady in spectacular fashion, kind of reminding us that like oh, you know, it's possible that the next guy behind Tom isn't Josh Allen Josh Allen might be the next guy behind Patrick mahomes But right now it's still is Patrick mahomes Time until proven otherwise.
Mike Lewis 30:02
Yeah, Doug, I mean, frankly, it almost seems kind of strange, right? We've got these, like really old guys, Roger, bringing, we had this kind of this gap, right? And then we had mahomes. And now we've got this kind of almost level of craziness of like the next guy trying to the next guy trying to emerge. Again, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna go against the standard media coverage. I'm not gonna overreact. I look at this, as, you know, in some ways, I kind of get the feeling that Brady and Rodgers know that it's a 17 game season. Right? They're not, they might just look at the media with a little bit of amusement and sort of, you know, and I, I don't think that's really the case. I think these guys are both ultra competitive. But I think they're really kind of their steady, right. I mean, you can tell that those guys those guys are in for the long haul. And there's no, there's no panicking there. I mean, look, I liked the way green, you know, Green Bay was supposed to be a disaster, right? The lack of receivers. That's developing, right? It's not great. But that's developing.
Doug Battle 31:15
Well, and you talked about the how steady these guys are. I mean, week one and two, Aaron Rodgers Green Bay, it was looking like a disaster. Going into that bears game Bears fans are starting to think you and I were talking about there's going to be a regression to the mean here. And this is where it happens just because it's the bears and it's Aaron Rodgers. But there was that sense of you know, maybe Aaron Rodgers should have retired or maybe his time has passed. And, and same with Joe burrow, Joe burrow, getting off to a rough start after a Super Bowl run last year. And people say maybe last year was a fluke. Well, guess what, these guys that are steady. They they know how to write the ship. They just keep doing what they do. They're not panicking, like the fan bases are. It's the same. I mean, we've seen it in college football year after year with Nick Saban. And they'll blues the Ole Miss or something. And the fan base will be you know, the media will be saying, Oh, this is the end of the dynasty. And that was like 10 years ago, or five years ago whenever it was. And it seems like that happens almost every year. The steady figures in sports, these veterans, they have a way of continuing to be great. And I think with quarterbacks that might be what differentiates the great veterans from the younger guys who have high ceilings, maybe even more talent and athleticism in the present, but not the same level of performance. You look at Trevor Lawrence a week ago, the guy looks like he turned a corner and people were talking about hey, Is he is he one of the elite NFL quarterbacks now turns the ball over five times the next week. Justin Herbert A week ago didn't look very good this week. He looks like the best quarterback in the NFL. His team absolutely went they go from absolutely destroying a team to or from rather from getting blown out to absolutely destroying a team. So Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, I think set the example for steady in the NFL as there is parity. Any team can beat any team on any given week. The media is overreacting. The fans are overreacting. The guys who aren't overreacting on the field are the guys who oftentimes have the most success
Mike Lewis 33:17
17 games. Let's go through the countdown. Okay, so at number five dog I've got a tie bears, Vikings, Steelers bills, lions and patriots. Bears Vikings. Vikings, our Vikings are an interesting club. They they're getting a lot of love. On the other side of it, Justin fields is really, really struggling to the point where I have to think you might be looking at a I don't know who the bears backup is but I suspect he may get he may get the call. I see. Steelers bills. You know I always love the rookie quarterback getting in and so Kenny Pickett got in the game inevitably. He now he understands that. Perhaps the best wide receiver on the Steelers is a UGM UGA Alumni and he's just going to throw the ball to Pickens. He had some bad luck. The ball bounced to a couple of other players a couple of times. That one's also interesting to me because one in three Steelers is not something that Steelers front office is used to seeing, you know, does this spiral out of control, or do they write the ship? And then the third one is an animal mention. Lions patriots. Bella checks back against the wall. They had a guy named Bailey's zappi playing playing for them and Bailey's zappi looked pretty good. Quietly, Jared Goff has done a pretty nice job statistically for the Lions. So to me intriguing quarterback stories, you know, all over even in the non marquee matchups,
Doug Battle 34:59
golf is like he's another one that reminds me of Alex Smith a little bit high draft pick. didn't pan out to be the NFL is best quarterback is kind of written off as a bus. You know it gets traded out of Los Angeles staffer comes in wins the Super Bowl week or year one which makes golf like how much worse. But statistically, he's been putting on numbers these last two years over in Detroit. And he's kind of forgotten about, but I think there's a lot of NFL teams that would kill to have a quarterback playing at his level right now. This slate of games this week just isn't as good to me as the first couple of weeks. I don't know what it is. But the storylines largely to me are not as gripping as they've been. I think, as a fan. Oh, God, let's
Mike Lewis 35:46
keep going. Let's keep going. And you know what I would have I should have added one more to the honorable mentions. And this is something because it's something we you and I have spoken about. I saw an article on ESPN today talking about how the Panthers need to bench Baker Mayfield for Sam darnold Inevitably, just a matter of time. And
Doug Battle 36:06
if you're only macro, we're healthy, we'd be
Mike Lewis 36:11
talking about Sam darnold For Baker Mayfield.
Doug Battle 36:14
Yeah, but the one thing I was gonna add with the matchups is for me as a fan, regardless of how intrigued I am by you know, looking at the slate of games from week to week, I'm still locked in. This is where the NFL always wins fantasy football, right? Like I've got players in every game. I'm in two different leagues. Sometimes I have players that I'm pulling for one league and pulling against and another league and it's very complex, but the NFL has such an infrastructure of keeping it interesting, regardless of how many divisional games are playoff type games. You know, last week, we felt like we had a potential AFC Championship preview this week. I don't know that we have that. But nevertheless, it's it's Let's go. It's always interesting.
Mike Lewis 36:55
At number four, I've got the Colts at one two in one versus the Broncos at two and two. This is the what do you call this? This is the let's get the old grizzled veteran put him on what we think of Super Bowl team matchup, right? Not really doesn't appear to be working out for either of these clubs. In terms of the NFL passer rating, Matt Ryan is ranked 20th in the league right now. Russell Wilson ranked 15th in the league and Russell Wilson taking a real beating because Geno Smith is performing is outperforming Russell Wilson by quite a bit.
Doug Battle 37:33
Yeah, it's not a good look. But I also have to wonder with these situations, if it doesn't improve over the course of the season, like, you know, these guys are in a new system. They're with new teammates, the quarterbacks, like there's a lot of timing routes. There's a lot of things that should be getting better in time. Russell Wilson and Matt Ryan are both veterans. They're both. They both have that mentality. You know, they're not freaking out over a couple of losses early in the season. And it'll be interesting to see, you know, let's say Russell Wilson, and the Broncos are to win this game. They're three and two. They're starting to find their groove offensively. And they start putting the pieces together and maybe they do position themselves like the front office originally imagined when they bring in a guy like Russell Wilson, even though everyone's been freaking out over what a disaster that move was. So it'll be interesting to see. But again, overreactions in sports. Oftentimes, like I hear the phrase all the time, that things are never as bad as they seem, they're never as good as they seem. And it may be the case in Denver, perhaps in Indianapolis, maybe one of these teams ends up competing for real for Super Bowl spot. Well,
Mike Lewis 38:43
and again, you know, you said it over and under react overreactions at this point. Okay, number three, Doug, I got the Cowboys the three and one cowboys led by Cooper rush, taking on the two in one is to one as of when we're taping this, rams, Cooper rush ranked 11th in the league and passing Matthew Stafford ranked 18th in the league and passing. Again, the overreactions are but in this case, the overreactions are so much fun. A quarterback controversy in Dallas. Every fan outside of the Dallas metro area in America is rooting for that.
Doug Battle 39:23
Yeah, we want a quarterback controversy. Also, I don't know if Dak is the most likable guy. I don't know what it is. He's definitely not like Zeke Elliott levels have unlikable and maybe it's just the fact that he's been part of the Cowboys team that's beat my giants over and over and over again over the years. I've just never really loved the guy. And I think Cooper Rush is kind of like a it's just a story that it's the Stetson Bennett story. People love the underdog. They love to see somebody named Cooper I know it sounds made up. It sounds like a silly TV show or something but so Cooper Raj taken on masks Stafford with Stafford in the Rams so another one of those things where it's like I just expect a regression to the mean at some point they haven't played at the level they were playing at late in the season last year with largely the same roster. You just have to think that's not going to continue at some point. Things kind of evened out, and they get their bad performances out of the way and you start seeing some of the more elite performances so until proven otherwise, you know, I've I've just been waiting for that to happen out of Los Angeles, but like you said Cooper rush and the Cowboys, they're on a roll right now. It's weird to say that with any level of enthusiasm, because I've notoriously disliked the Cowboys for my entire life, but it's fun. It's interesting.
Mike Lewis 40:41
We all want trouble in Dallas.
Doug Battle 40:44
We want controversy in Dallas, everyone
Mike Lewis 40:47
outside of Big D That's what every NFL fan wants what
Doug Battle 40:50
I want to see is Cooper rush be the holder in a big playoff game and have the season Tony Romo had and repeat history by showing he doesn't have the clutch Gene Right as people start to hate him as the next Tom Brady.
Mike Lewis 41:05
Okay. And number you know is just they get away with it at some point we should talk about that whole Eli Manning pence Penn State video
Doug Battle 41:13
walking fast run fast. I was I was told yesterday that I look like Eli Manning What do you think Mike?
Mike Lewis 41:20
I see some Daniel Jones in you.
Doug Battle 41:22
Oh, well.
Mike Lewis 41:24
i i important Mac I you
Doug Battle 41:27
think I could be the John I should have worked on that I could be making a little bit more money. Had I worked on my throwing motion and reads and watched a little bit more film.
Mike Lewis 41:39
Okay, number two, Doug. I've got the Arizona Cardinals a three on one versus the Philadelphia Eagles at four. No. Okay. The overreaction the Eagles are, I would say the Super Bowl favorite coming out of the NFC four games in doesn't mean anything. Jalen hertz, ranked number nine and passing for TDs. two interceptions. It's actually kind of surprising when you look at his numbers, how much hype he's getting for TDs and two interceptions, taking on weight on the season. On the season. Aaron Murray. And again, you know, I'm sorry, Kyler. Murray.
Doug Battle 42:18
I was like Aaron Murray's back, how did I know this? Guy
Mike Lewis 42:23
Kyler. Murray ranked 19th in the NFL in passing. And again, mostly notable, and so you know, I think this is this is probably the big the big NFC matchup for the week with two teams with, you know, young quarterbacks are getting a lot of hype, one of them getting a lot of money. Good, or, you know, in some ways, it's the opposite of Brady playing. Playing Rogers, someone's gonna be you know, someone's gonna get you know, another bump up and sort of the media attention, and someone's going to take a little bit of a hit. You know, I'm on record as not being a tremendous fan of Kyler Murray, looking at his stats so far. You know, I wasn't wrong on that one. And again, I will get back to those QB win ratings, because I think there's a lot of, it's actually kind of fun to do a metric like that. And then look at the season as it progresses. I just want to get a little bit more data in so I can say where I was right where I was where I was wrong, right. But Cardinals eagles, who would have thought that that would have been sort of the marquee matchup in week one or week four. Yeah.
Doug Battle 43:33
Jalen Hertz. I don't know, he's just such a big story to me this year, because because he was not viewed as a consensus starting NFL quarterback this time a year ago. And now people are talking about him. Like they used to talk about Dak Prescott. The Eagles are talking about Super Bowls, and Philly, and, and Kyler Murray, I'm with you. I've never been the biggest fan. He honestly like he plays a really, really high level for someone that we we don't trash but that we're so critical of constantly. And this is the kind of game where it's like he could prove it to people like you and me who are doubters and say, wow, you know, he, he got a win over that Philly team that's been steamroll, and everybody
Mike Lewis 44:22
what it is stuck with me. I don't even think you know, it's like I don't I don't really want to bash any players. And it's like, I want to look at it more numerically. And it's like, it's look, it's not his fault. It's just the way the NFL quarterback market works. I just don't think he is anyway merits the level of investment they put into him, right that he hadn't. He hadn't proven that. And so it's like, you know that, in some ways, the I'm more fascinated by the potential issues that that creates with that franchise in the long term. Now, it's the Arizona Cardinals where you know, there hasn't been any consistent six SAS, but it's almost like to me they've locked. They've locked in mediocrity now they, you know, they've got, let's say, the 15th best quarterback in the league, and they're gonna have him out there for the next five years. Is that what you want to
Doug Battle 45:12
do? Yeah, I'm in the NFL with its structure for helping the worst teams and, you know, creating parity, the worst place to be probably is in the middle, because you're not getting the top picks, financially, especially if you're in the middle and you've got cap space, you're in a great position, if you're in the middle. And then you say, You know what, we're going to double down on our players that we have right now, we're going to put all of our resources into this team, and you stay in the middle, you're in a tough spot, because you're not getting those top picks, you're not able to add free agents, noteworthy free agents at that. And quarterback, we're in a league where it seems like you've got to have a top 10 guy to win a Super Bowl, if you don't have one, and then you lock them in for the next 10 years, you're basically guaranteeing your team's yourself continuing. Yeah, exactly. So it might look like you're in a better position than a team, like, let's say Seattle, or team that looks like they don't have a quarterback, the Atlanta Falcons, but those teams are far more likely to attain a guy like that, because they will likely get the high draft picks, and they'll get one and then they'll build around them. And you know, they might be really bad. And then really good. I mean, just kind of like Cincinnati was five years ago to now.
Mike Lewis 46:35
Well, or, you know, some of the comments about Jacksonville. So, you know, Trevor Lawrence, you know, definitely seems improved from last year, you know, maybe not consistently great. And I didn't see Jacksonville play, but it sounds like you know, the young defensive players that Jacksonville took, again, sort of these mechanisms for parity. These young defensive players for Jacksonville have stepped up quite a bit. Yeah. And so you know, if you're gonna ask me, who's again, hot take, who's more likely to win a Super Bowl in the next five years, Jacksonville or Arizona? I would put my money on Jacksonville. Whoa.
Doug Battle 47:15
That's, that is that is a hot take. It's just thinking of like, even the Jaguars logo next to a Superbowl logo just blows my mind.
Mike Lewis 47:27
I mean, but in some ways, the ultimate downtrodden NFL team right I wouldn't see
Doug Battle 47:32
like Jacksonville vers. I don't know another another bottom feeder that that has had a lot of first round pick out boys.
Mike Lewis 47:42
Cowboys with Cooper rush. Okay, Doug, what I like the matchup I liked the most going into next week is Joe burrows to into Bengals versus Lamar Jackson's to into Ravens. I think that is the I think that's the game of the week for either those two teams and those quarterbacks to be two and three, this far into the season. They have to be a major disappointment. Currently burrow ranks 14th on the passer rating, Lamar Jackson ranks fourth in the passer rating. Lamar Jackson is to me and again, talking about some things you get right some things you get wrong. Numerically, I did. You know, I thought Jackson was trending down. I don't. I'll come out of every week and say this duck. I don't understand Lamar Jackson. I don't think he exists within the advanced analytics. He's something he's something different.
Doug Battle 48:37
He had a throw this week that would have been an interception had any other quarterback thrown it and so what ended up being a complete it was like, bad decision. Bad pass completion, positive yards win for Lamar Jackson. He He defies everything we know about football, and I love it. I love watching the guy because it's just like, wow, I haven't seen this. You know, people early in his career compared him to Michael Vick. I think we're at a point in his career where statistically you look at it and you're like, wait, is he better than Michael Vick? Who we used to worship you know, who we used to put on such a pedestal and everyone's been doubting Lamar Jackson this entire time. Vic didn't win any Super Bowls, by the way, and that was you know, that's everybody's knock on Lamar Jackson. So he's a fascinating player to watch play football. I personally have enjoyed it because I took a flyer on him and fantasy he was a little bit undervalued because of the season he had last year and I thought you know, if you can, if you can get back to the level he's playing a couple years back in that's what they're saying. He's at full health and stuff, then that that'll be a worthy investment and it's been fun. He's been the number one fantasy quarterback. He's come down to earth this last week a little bit, but we'll see how it fares against the Bengals.
Mike Lewis 49:50
But Doug, we need Joe burrow.
Doug Battle 49:54
We need Joe burrow.
Mike Lewis 49:55
He walked into that game. What was he what was on his suit? It was like a floor We're all suit. Did you see this?
Doug Battle 50:02
I lose track of Joe burrows fashion statements from week to week that I certainly appreciate them.
Mike Lewis 50:08
We need Joe burrow as a perennial fixture in the postseason. For us to be I think, I think for you and I to both be happy about the NFL, we need Joe burrow to have success.
Doug Battle 50:20
I think what's especially unique about burrow you talked about last week and him just being cool. You know, regardless of all the chaos that seemed to be going on in Cincinnati. All these young quarterbacks that have their ups and downs that are extreme. And then we talked about our veterans who weather the storm Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. And it's just certain that at some point, they're going to, they're going to stick through it and things are going to work out for them. Burroughs got that quality. He's got that veteran quality as a young guy, and maybe he's not very young. Like he's an older young quarterback, if you know what I mean. Like he was drafted at an older age than some of these guys. But Joe burrow.
Mike Lewis 51:03
I think Brady and Rogers are more emotional than burrow.
Doug Battle 51:07
Yeah, he's it's like, he's the he's the coolest guy in the NFL. And I don't just mean like, swagger. I mean, like, truly under pressure, under I mean, any situation is he keeps his cool. I could see, I honestly think the loser of this game, people are gonna freak out and say, Wow, they're under 500. This for, you know, a third of the way into the season. I think you'll like if it's the Bengals I wouldn't freak out. If I'm a Bengals fan, like Joe burrow is going to keep chopping wood. He's going to keep doing his thing. And it's going to pay off over the course of the season. I think I mean, the Ravens? I would say probably the same thing. It's I think both of those teams are good football teams that are going to be well positioned to make a playoff run late in the season.
Mike Lewis 51:51
Well, I have no, you know, there's my final question. Let's say the, let's say the Ravens continue to play like this. And they end up a eight and nine kind of team. Do you pay Lamar Jackson? And again, maybe that's a question that you can't really answer even. And I'm talking about a Lamar Jackson that is, you know, Lamar Jackson being number four in the NFL on the passer rating. You know, you got to be very specific about that. That's the passer rating. He's also isn't I believe he's also in the top 10 In terms of rushing
Doug Battle 52:25
yards, right. Yeah. And, you know, you don't know how sustainable the rushing is over, you know, if you're signing him to a 10 year contract or something like that, but he's certainly the heartbeat of that football team. And I'll counter what you said with one thing you said if they keep playing like this, and they go eight, nine, I don't think they're gonna go eight nine if they keep playing like this, this last week, they played the Buffalo Bills. I think that game could have gone either way is practically a coin flip. Had Baltimore won that football game, there are three in one right now. Lamar Jackson is playing at an MVP level. It's a totally different story. Totally different story. But now two and two, and it's like, oh, they can be two and three after this next week. It's It's a different feeling. But I think they're playing at a level where, you know, they're playing like a three in one football team. They may have lost the bills of phenomenal football team this last week, but Baltimore is going to be okay, in my opinion, and I wouldn't be too concerned about eight nine. But should that happen? It will be a very, very interesting situation. It might complicate the Lamar Jackson offseason. I personally if I'm Baltimore, I think I still do it.
Mike Lewis 53:30
Yeah, and again, it's just going to be fascinating, you know, hitting that open market. The number and in some ways, you know, in some ways, you know, Jackson going on a deep run would be fascinating to see just what the quarterback market could could bear and where the competition could come out with. Okay, Doug, last thing I want to switch over to switch over to our a little bit more of this thing on the academic research side, related to fandom and the next generation fandom survey. I'm kind of guessing you're not because we haven't really discussed it in the time that we've been talking. Are you much of a sports gambler?
Doug Battle 54:14
I am not that's not to say I wouldn't if I felt like there was easy money to be made, but it's currently not legal. I think it will be in the coming years and we'll see. Oh, it seems
Mike Lewis 54:30
like we're rapidly moving towards you know, people talking about legalizing sports gambling in the Georgia gubernatorial election. All the league's have spent a lot of time talking about you know, they got to have their app. They the gambling is the key. So on this next generation fandom survey, asked some questions about gambling and what I've got here is I've got to look at the levels of fandom for sports and then Next slide is non sports of gamblers versus non gamblers. Okay, Doug, my quick take, we all got stereotypes and in my kind of quick take on gamblers was that these are the, these weren't exactly going to be, I'm having trouble finding the right words. But a lot of times gamblers don't feel like the sort of the ideal fans, the fans that you want. Now, what this figure is showing is that across every sport, if you just look at the people that say, gambling is very important to me, or that I'm a very active gambler, the fandom rates for every sport are almost doubled, or more than doubled and for the non gamblers, okay. So amongst gamblers in the end, like this is a national sample of about 2000 people, I think we only have about 300 folks that are hardcore gamblers, 75% of those 300 people are NFL fans, compared to 35%. Non of the non gamblers 61% of the gamblers are basketball fans, compared to 23 of them, percent of the non gamblers, it looks like this across the board. I'm a little surprised by this. You got any thoughts?
Doug Battle 56:15
On my first thought? I misread the graph. So I was looking at it like, okay, you know, 11% of hockey fans are non gamblers and 40% are gamblers and what are the other? What's the rest of that. So I appreciate you explaining that. And for those of you listening and audio forum, this is on our YouTube and on our fandomanalytics.com post as well. But looking at this, you know, seeing football so high, I don't know, it's interesting to me, like you go across the sports, some of the sports that are more male dominant, more looking at your other numbers more conservative, dominant, as far as the fan base is tend to have higher rates of gamblers. I'm not necessarily shocked that there's twice as many per sport. But it is a little bit of a staggering number. Of course, eSports is the one that on your chart has the lowest level of you'll go back Yeah, of non gamblers, which is pretty interesting to me.
Mike Lewis 57:17
Yeah. So for Esports amongst the gamblers, 40% of the gamblers we're interested in are fans of eSports compared to 7% of the non gamblers, fans of eSports. You know, Doug, that's a good number to isolate. So this is a, this is a this is from 13 to 75 in terms of the age range and relatively even. So what this is really saying is that, you know, like in some ways that that esports number amongst the non gamblers. That's pretty shocking of only 7% Compared to 40%. It's interesting, because I think what part of what starts to come out of this story, is the gamblers are and again, look, we all got stereotypes, when I think about gamblers, I think about the type of people that hang out at the off track betting arena. You know, my thoughts about gamblers kind of quickly get into the, you know, kind of smoking, drinking, gambling, degenerate kind of stuff here. But these pictures, the survey data starts to tell me something a little bit, something a little bit different. The next slide is, let me find it here. The next slide is gamblers and non gamblers and their non sports fandom rates. So again, the same type of thing. We look at the population of gamblers, you know, only about 300 people out of versus 1700 non gamblers. And then we ask them, essentially, are you fans of movies? Are you fans of TV, music, comedy, fashion, colleges, politics, sports brands, and even crypto. And across the board, this group of gamblers is far more passionate, whatever word you want to use, far more passionate, far more engaged than the non gamblers across every one of these categories.
Doug Battle 59:07
So you're saying that the most the people who are most part of our society and our culture are gambling.
Mike Lewis 59:16
The gamblers are the most culturally engaged. Gambling segment is the most culture. I mean, and it's probably there's this underlying trait of people that are really engaged, tend to be fans of a lot of things, and they also tend to gamble, right? That's most likely what's happening. But Doug, these numbers, this is I hadn't really thought a lot about it. But I'm absolutely stunned by these numbers in terms of you know, gambling is not. Gambling does not appear to be you know, this thing of like smoking, drinking degeneracy. Gambling really seems to be like this kind of key indicator of people that really are engaged and frankly, in some ways maybe that makes sense, right? I gamble because I want to be even more a part of the sport.
Doug Battle 1:00:06
Yeah, and it, you know, you put your money where your mouth is as far as what you're into. And so it's no surprise, although the numbers, again, just striking. I have one story on gambling, and it's quick. So I was at a football game with a buddy. And it was a blowout. Most people left the stadium, I feel like I'm a true fan. So I stay at the stadium to the end of the game. And there was somebody like a couple of rows behind me, there weren't a lot of people in the stadium. This is a Georgia football game. Now a lot of people in the stadium and they might, you know, they were playing one of those games, it was like a Stanford or UAB or something. And guy a couple of rows back, he is pulling for a goal line stand at the end of like a 63 to seven game, like, the Super Bowl was on the line. And I was like, what's up with this guy's goes crazy. Like, Is he really going to be that upset? If Georgia gives up six points late in the game, you know, with five seconds left, or whatever my buddy was, was like, No, the lot, it's about the line, he's like, That guy must have a lot of money on the game. Because you know, the line was, was on the line, essentially, whatever number he bet on Georgia to win by was going to be determined, you know, if this team scored, that number would be broken, and he would lose money or whatnot. So if you ever had a sporting event, and there's people that are highly engaged in the game to the very end, regardless of how much of a blowout it is, particularly in those types of games, where it's an expected blowout, the people that are most engaged, those are the gamblers, they're right there. And you can you can see him by how invested they are in the game. How tuned in they are?
Mike Lewis 1:01:45
Well, Doug, we don't have you know, it's about time to wrap this up. But you know, I'll give you one thought. And again, there's always like this complexity, right? So we have this observation that the gamblers are in some ways, the gamblers are this ultra engaged population, so maybe that's who you want to target. But if the key is engagement, and you know, maybe there's one thing we can learn from things like EA Sports, maybe what these, you know, maybe what the sports industry needs to do, especially, you know, programs or leagues that are losing a little bit of a little bit of marketplace cachet is you got to, you got to create some type of incremental engagement. I mean, and luck is gambling away to do and having kind of skin in the game. And like, I'll throw this out there real quick. And it's a million dollar idea for free at the end of the podcast. That thanks for listening, right baseball, rather than shortening the game in a pitch clock? How about some sort of loyalty program where when you buy a ticket, you know, you're earning points, if the you know, if the team is essentially scoring X numbers of runs, or if they're winning, right? You know, link that in some ways, this kind of goes back to our conversation about that tide commercial last week, right? Make the fans fully a participant in the game, make it make it I think
Doug Battle 1:03:10
that's the brilliance of fantasy football. And that's why I feel like weeks like this week, or I feel like there's not a great slate everyone's still tuned in because they have skin in the game. We've got I've, I have my players that are responsible for my team, and I can win. And at the end of the season, I may or may not have put some money in a pot that I might be getting back if my players perform well. So I do have skin in the game. And that's a lot of fantasy football owners. That's like, to me, that's the most brilliant thing in sports is fantasy football for the NFL. So many people that aren't really fans of any team participate, if for no other reason to be part of a social group. And yet they become invested and they start tuning in and the NFL has that subset of fans that you know, maybe MLB and I know they have their own fantasy, but it may not be the same level as work. Yeah. So anyway, it is is an interesting way to look at sports business moving forward, and I'm sure we'll have more discussions on that future.
Mike Lewis 1:04:09
Okay, everyone, that's it for this week, as always more content@www.fandomanalytics.com Till next time. Thank you
Comments