The sports world has been aflutter with talk of the XFL, the new outlaw football league that shocked the world Saturday with higher ratings on NBC than the baseball playoffs. As we've been predicting, the XFL has proved just as popular online, where it currently sits at #8 on the Lycos 50.
From sportswriters around the country, the cry has been heard: "The XFL is cheap! It's trash! It sells sex, not real football!" Others say that the XFL is nothing to get upset about, just minor-league talent with a fresh coat of paint.
Is XFL football about football? Or is it about X, whatever that stands for (the league claims it stands for nothing). We decided to take a look at queries to see what NFL searches and XFL searches had in common, and how they were different.
We based our study on searches for both leagues during the week before the season started. For the NFL, that means searches for the week ending September 2, 2000. For the XFL, that means searches for the week ending February 3, 2001. Coincidentally, the NFL held the same spot on the Lycos 50 then that the XFL does now: #8.
Here are the top searches for the XFL and NFL:
1) XFL
2) XFL Cheerleaders
3) XFL.com
4) XFL Football
5) XFL Rules
6) XFL Fantasy Football
7) XFL Depth Charts
8) XFL Rosters
9) XFL Schedule
10) XFL Draft
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NFL.com
NFL
NFL Picks
NFL Odds
NFL Point Spreads
NFL Schedule
NFL Predictions
NFL Football
NFL Injury Report
NFL Merchandise
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So what have we learned about the two leagues?
First, the X in XFL seems to stand for "unexpected." Because Lycos users didn't quite know what to expect from the new league, 63 percent of XFL searches were for just XFL or XFL football, as opposed to 25 percent of NFL searches for just NFL or NFL football.
Second, as Vince McMahon has planned, the cheerleaders are a huge draw for the new league. 14 percent of XFL searches were for the cheerleaders, but only one percent of NFL searches. In fact, searches for NFL cheerleaders are higher now than they were then. Perhaps football fans are hoping the XFL's sexiness is rubbing off on the NFL's sideline sirens.
On the other hand, gambling seems to be a much bigger part of the NFL's popularity. That seems strange, since McMahon has sought gamblers from the beginning. He encourages his announcers to refer to the line on the air and sideline reporters ask fans if they have money on the game.
But less than one percent of XFL searches asked for odds or point spreads, as opposed to 11 percent of NFL searches. And there were very few requests for XFL picks, but more than 16 percent of NFL queries specified picks or predictions.
The biggest indicator, however, that football fans are taking the XFL seriously as football, and not just "sports entertainment" like the WWF, is the popularity of XFL fantasy football. 3 percent of searchers were looking for XFL fantasy football, which is a lot when you consider that nobody had much clue who the league's stars would be. Those searches for XFL depth charts and XFL starters, as well as searches for XFL cheat sheet and XFL player rankings, are all coming from aspiring fantasy football players for whom the league is more about touchdowns and yardage and less about tacky sex and funky nicknames.
Of course, XFL fantasy football can't compete with the popularity of NFL fantasy football, the most popular fantasy sports competition of all. Most NFL fantasy searches are just for fantasy football, not NFL fantasy, and thus are not on the list above. But fantasy football got a quarter as many searches as the NFL total back in September, far more than the 3 percent for XFL fantasy football. Nonetheless, XFL fantasy got more searches last week than fantasy basketball or hockey got during the week before each of those seasons started.
Given the popularity of WWF merchandise, we had surprisingly few searches for XFL merchandise. The league hasn't produced replica jerseys yet, but there is plenty of XFL apparel for sale. In fact, you can buy a lot of it at Lycos Shop.
If you are interested in the XFL, check out this first week photo gallery at Lycos Sports, which also has plenty of coverage of the NFL off-season.
MONDAY: More fun than a barrel of...
