75% of Those Who Have Sampled the New XFL Find it More Interesting or About the Same As NFL

South Orange, NJ – February 28, 2020 — As football fans begin to test the new XFL, now three weeks old, 27 percent of those who have watched at least part of a game say they find it more interesting than a typical NFL broadcast, and 48 percent find it just as interesting.  Twenty-four percent say it is less interesting.

While only 26 percent of respondents said they had seen some part of a game during its three weeks on the air, those who saw it liked what they saw.

This was the finding of a Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted this week across the country among 693 adults on landlines and cellphones.  The Poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.

“It’s early, but that’s terrific news for the XFL,” noted Rick Gentile, director of the Seton Hall Sports Poll, which is sponsored by the Sharkey Institute within the Stillman School of Business. “The NFL is a beloved American institution.  That 75 percent of those who have sampled the XFL find it just as interesting or more so has got to bring big smiles to the XFL founders.”

This was the finding of a Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted this week across the country among 693 adults on landlines and cellphones.  The Poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percent.

Extend NFL Season to 17 Games?
The Poll also asked whether people were in favor of extending the NFL season from 16 to 17 games (while reducing the pre-season games to three from four).  Thirty-one percent said they were for the extended schedule because it meant more football, 24 percent were opposed because they were fine with things the way they were, and 28 percent were against it because of the greater risk of injury to the players.

Questions and breakdown below.

About the poll:

This poll was conducted by telephone February 24-26 among adults in the United States. The Seton Hall Sports Poll is conducted by the Sharkey Institute within the Stillman School of Business. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard landline and cell phones.  The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. The Seton Hall Sports Poll has been conducted regularly since 2006.Recently chosen for inclusion in iPoll by Cornell’s Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, its findings have been published everywhere from USA Today, ESPN, The New York Times, Washington Post, AP, and Reuters to Fox News and most points in between.

Media: Media: Marty Appel, AppelPR@gmail.com;
Michael Ricciardelli, Associate Director of Media Relations, Seton Hall
michael.ricciardelli@shu.edu, 908-447-3034

The results:

  1. The NFL has suggested making some dramatic changes to its regular season schedule. The season would be extended to 17 games, reducing the pre-season games to 3 for each team.  Which of the following do you most agree with:

 

1 – I’m for it because it’s more football                                      31

2 – I’m against it because things were fine the way they were   24

3 – I’m against it because an additional game means

additional risk of injury for players                                           28

4- Don’t Know/No Opinion                                                                   17

 

  1. Have you watched any part of an XFL game during the first 3 weeks of the inaugural season?

 

1 – Yes                                      26

2 – No                                       72

3 – Don’t know               3

 

IF YES TO ABOVE

  1. Do you think the XFL broadcast presentation is more interesting than a typical NFL broadcast, less interesting or about the same?

 

1 – More interesting                  27

2 – Less interesting                    24

3 – About the same                   48

4 – Don’t know/No opinion        1

 

 

ABOUT SETON HALL UNIVERSITY

One of the country’s leading Catholic universities, Seton Hall has been showing the world what great minds can do since 1856. Home to nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and offering more than 90 rigorous academic programs, Seton Hall’s academic excellence has been singled out for distinction by The Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Seton Hall embraces students of all religions and prepares them to be exemplary servant leaders and global citizens. In recent years, the University has achieved extraordinary success. Since 2009, it has seen record-breaking undergraduate enrollment growth and an impressive 110-point increase in the average SAT scores of incoming freshmen. In the past decade, Seton Hall students and alumni have received more than 30 Fulbright Scholarships as well as other prestigious academic honors, including Boren Awards, Pickering Fellowships, Udall Scholarships and a Rhodes Scholarship. The University is also proud to be the third most diverse national Catholic university in the nation.

During the past five years, the University has invested more than $165 million in new campus buildings and renovations. And in 2015, Seton Hall launched a School of Medicine as well as a College of Communication and the Arts. The University’s beautiful main campus in suburban South Orange, N.J. is only 14 miles from New York City — offering students a wealth of employment, internship, cultural and entertainment opportunities. Seton Hall’s nationally recognized School of Law is located prominently in downtown Newark. The University’s Interprofessional Health Sciences (IHS) campus in Clifton and Nutley, N.J. opened in the summer of 2018. The IHS campus houses the University’s College of Nursing, School of Health and Medical Sciences and the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University.

For more information, visit www.shu.edu.

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