What's in a number?

Hoosier sports fans have had a great deal of math to do lately.\nThe IU football team needs six wins to become bowl eligible and has five. The IU men’s basketball team came out ranked ninth in the preseason ESPN/USA Today poll and was picked to finish second in the conference at this weekend’s Big Ten Media Day in Chicago. The men’s soccer team is ranked 11th nationally. Hopes are high for the IU wrestling team, as it is ranked 15th in the preseason. That’s a lot of digits.\nWith such numbers running through fans’ minds, it must be easy for many to get excited – for all the wrong reasons.\nEnvision this: A fan is on the edge of his seat, palms sweating, breathing heavily and waiting. The anticipation of the moment and the weight of the impending occurrence will cause him glorious elation or heart-wrenching pain. He lives and dies in every moment, the way good fans are said to do. \nWhat is it that he is staring at? Not a playing field in the middle of a cold, blistering day. Not a television screen with the weekend’s game playing, all the enhancements of modern day media accompanying it. None of these, because the games are long over. No, he is staring at a computer screen, unable to catch his breath, as the week’s rankings are shoveled out into the media sphere by people who claim to know these things.\nBut I ask this – What does some number that pertains to teams that have never and will never play each other really say about the quality of athletic competition? \nHow can the heart and soul of a team, its players’ sweat and tears, be measured against, say, the number six? With the tragic passing of Terry Hoeppner compounding the emotion of every game, the IU football team is more than its number of wins. \nWhile six wins is a goal the team has been relentlessly working toward, the true story of the team is told in every play, in every touchdown, in every dropped pass, in every thrown block and in every scrape or cut. No doubt fans are disappointed that “number six” is still out of reach. But the accomplishment of the football team cannot be found in it.\nWhat does the number nine have to do with the storied history of IU’s basketball program that is built on the foundation of tough Big Ten play and a great desire? As the Hoosiers’ ranking rises or falls during the season, it will have little to do with what has happened on the court. Yet, I wonder how many sports fans would play fantasy college basketball if it were available, not caring about competition and focusing primarily on statistics that are neither here nor there.\nThe focus of fans and of sports culture in general is altered by a perception that the obtainment of a meaningless number is the only path to greatness. Such focus is flawed to its core. The real obtainment of greatness comes on the playing fields and in the athletics facilities second by second, play by play. Numbers and rankings detract from the true greatness of athletic competition.