[NU Sports] NU at Wrigley

[Dennis W. Brandt]

<For that to be true, attendance data should show that every school vying 
for a BT title year after year would sell out and every school failing to 
consistently contend for a BT title would not.

Jeff (with two f's)

Did you miss the part where I related how Penn State's attendance fell when 
they weren't in contention?    You mean that Illinois, Northwestern, 
Indiana, and Minnesota have always filled their stands?  Doesn't perennial 
contender OSU always fill their stadium?  Or Michigan, whose recent drop-off 
is an aberration?

<What the data DOES show and you confirmed in your response is that there 
are MANY reasons why some teams have good attendance and some teams have 
poor attendance.  Whether those things are a history of past success, fan 
skepticism, or even things that are just "atypical" or "inexplicable" 
doesn't really matter in terms of correlation.  What DOES matter is that, at 
least according to the data, winning is neither the one thing or the only 
thing.

Your reasoning flies into the wild blue yonder.  Seems to me that "history 
of past success" means that fans of teams who have WON in the past tend to 
believe there is a strong chance of WINNING in the future.  Those who 
express "skepticism" are those who follow teams that have not WON.