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<\/a><\/p>\nReal Madrid and Bar\u00e7a have won La Liga, the top division of Spanish football, 21 times in the past 25 years. As for how they compare to other teams, a simple statistic is the standard deviation of league winning percentages, which when compiled over a number of years shows how fair or stacked any league is. In Do The Math!<\/i><\/a>, I calculated such a Fairness Quotient for La Liga and the English Premiership (shown below) as well as for the main professional team sports in the United States and Canada (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey).<\/p>\n Here you can see how the English Premiership has become more unfair every year, especially since the advent of the Champions League and its multi-million euro payouts. As far as the EPL goes, there are only four teams: Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal, although a recent influx of oil money to Manchester City may expand the potential winner\u2019s pool to 5. The rest are just seat fillers for George Clooney and Matt Damon on their cigarette and Nespresso breaks at the Oscars.<\/p>\n English Premiership League \u00a0(left) and Spanish La Liga (right): Highest winning percentage (top curve), lowest winning percentage (bottom curve), absolute deviation (middle, dashed curve), and standard deviation or FQ (middle, solid curve)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n But so what if a league isn\u2019t fair? \u2013 It\u2019s supposed to be a competition. The good teams beat the bad and that\u2019s it \u2013 sport. But if the same good teams beat the same bad teams year after year, then it isn\u2019t sport, it\u2019s economics. In fact, economics have taken over major sports everywhere where lucrative television deals are to be had.<\/p>\n Why is this a caracola<\/i>? Well, I might like to see Sporting de Gij\u00f3n play without having to pay an expensive cable subscription, which in reality is a Real Madrid-Barcelona Champions League Vanity Tax (RMBCLVT). I might even like to see Real Madrid and Bar\u00e7a play occasionally, to see if any other team comes close to beating them. But let\u2019s face it, that\u2019s unlikely, thanks to today\u2019s sports administration (ahem, accountants). Though it would be fun to see, once.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t had much time to watch sports since I arrived in Spain this past summer. Most of the good ones require a cable subscription anyway, e.g., Canal+ (at \u20ac50 a month). For free, I get Masters tennis, cycling, and … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\nFor other interesting statistical connections see:<\/h5>\n
Music Statistics: Seeing the Business Side to Songs<\/b><\/a>, The International Year of Statistics<\/i>, October 18, 2013<\/strong><\/b><\/h5>\n
Teeter-Totter Averages: How to See Everyday Statistics<\/b><\/a>, The International Year of Statistics<\/i>, August 19, 2013<\/strong><\/b><\/h5>\n
Patterns in Probability: How to See Binomial Statistics<\/b><\/a>, The International Year of Statistics<\/i>, July 8, 2013<\/strong><\/h5>\n
For FQs of North American sports leagues and other interesting economic comparisons, see Do The Math!: On Growth, Greed, and Strategic Thinking<\/i><\/a> (Sage, 2012, 2013).<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"