FACTOIDS FROM THE ELECTION THAT MAY NOT MEAN ANYTHING

Hello, Stat Man John, never to be called John the Stat Man, here. Last Tuesday an historic election took place in these good old United States of America. But we are not here to talk politics. You see, naturally after such a historic event, many people came up to "The Stat Man" asking, "What does this election mean for me, John Q. Football Fan?" So of course "The Stat Man" was more than happy to oblige. Here's what I uncovered.

• Of the XLII Super Bowls, 14 were played with a Democratic president in office.
• In the inauguration years the AFC and NFC have both won five Super Bowls.
• In those 14 Democratic Super Bowls, the NFC won nine, for a .642 winning percentage. While over half, not overly dominating. However...
• In the last Democratic run in the Oval Office, the NFC went 6-2, with Denver being the only AFC team to win during the Clinton administration.
• Under Jimmy Carter, the AFC won three of four Super Bowls, and before that the NFC won both Super Bowls under the Democratic chief.
  
• Under Lyndon Johnson Super Bowls I and II were taken by the Packers, then the Republicans took over....
• Under Richard Milhouse Nixon the AFC won four of five Super Bowls.
• Under Gerald Ford the AFC was 4-0 in Super Bowls .
• Carter took office and the AFC won three of four.
  
• Then under Ronald Reagan the NFC won six of eight Super Bowls.
• Under Bush, Sr, the NFC went 4-0.
• Then, as mentioned under Clinton, the NFC took six of eight.
  
• Under "Dubya" the AFC won six of eight.
• Meaning the odds are good that one of the conferences will dominate the Obama administration and more likely than not it will be the NFC, but then again...
  
• When the White House changes over to the other party, the AFC has won four of five Super Bowls. Bad news for fans of NFC teams, but...
• If there were any NFC team that could win the Super Bowl, odds are on either the Cowboys or the Packers.
• The Cowboys have won four Super Bowls, all under Democratic presidents. In fact they are 4-1 with a Democrat in the White House, while they were 0-2 with a Republican sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
  
• Meanwhile the Packers have been to four Super Bowls, winning 3, all with a Democrat in office.
  
• As mentioned earlier, the NFC has won nine of the 14 Super Bowls under a Democratic president. The Packers and Cowboys have combined to win seven of those nine.
• But it gets worse for Giants fans. The Giants have never been to a Super Bowl with a Democrat in office, annnnnnddddd......
• The Giants had the distinct privilege of playing in both the first and last Super Bowls of the Bush administration, in fact....
• The G-Men have only played in Super Bowls with a Bush in office, if you count the one they won while George, Sr. was Reagan's Vice President. And how about this...
  
• Although not related to the presidency, the Giants have only won Super Bowls when New York has had a Democratic Governor. The one Super Bowl the Giants played under a Republican New York Governor, they were trounced by the Ravens. Something to think about when Giants fans vote for the next governor. Right now, the governor of New York is a Democrat.
• As far as using the governors as a guide, teams who play in a state with a Republican governor under a Democratic president are 7-7 in Super Bowls.
• Teams who play in a state with Democratic governor under a Democratic President are 6-6.
• In 14 Super Bowls under a Democratic president, the Super Bowl winner has come from a state with a Democratic governor only six times.
  
• In three of those victories, the loser was also from a state with a Democratic governor. Which of course means, in those three games, a team from a state with a Democratic governor had to win.
• Now if the AFC is to win, the odds are in favor of that team coming out of the AFC West. That's right, the AFC West. In the 14 Super Bowls under a Democratic regime, the AFC has been represented by the AFC West seven, count 'em, seven times.
  
• Of course the AFC West teams have only managed a 3-4 record in those 7 appearances, and the Broncos have two of those three wins. So watch out for the Chargers and Broncos.
  
• But the Titans seem to be the AFC favorite at the moment. The Titans have only appeared in one Super Bowl, but it was under a Democrat, plus...
• While the Giants played in the first and last Super Bowls of the "Dubya" administration, if the Titans were to get to the Super Bowl, they will have played in the last Super Bowl of the last Democrat administration and the first Super Bowl of the new Democrat administration.
• Now the Patriots have been to six Super Bowls, but only one under a Democrat, and they lost that one.
• The Colts franchise has been to three Super Bowls, not one under a Democratic president.
• If there's one franchise that should be more or less unphased by the election it is the Steelers. Pittsburgh has been to six Super Bowls, but three have been with a Republican president, of course meaning the other three have been with a Democrat.
• Of course the only Super Bowl the Steelers lost was under a Democratic president.
  
• And finally, under a Democrat, teams in the eastern third of the United States are 4-4 in Super Bowls. The western third is 2-5 and the middle third of the U.S. is 8-5. Meaning "real" America has the best chance of going to and winning the Super Bowl.
  

So, all in all, nothing that conclusive can be drawn from this information, except that the odds of the Giants winning, or even going to the Super Bowl are not great. And odds are that either the NFC or AFC will win at least 75% of the Super Bowls while Obama is in office. But if you were to pick a Super Bowl from all this information, I'd say either Pittsburgh, Tennessee or San Diego versus Dallas, Green Bay, or Chicago. But, based on these stats, if we were to have to pick, based on Obama's election is San Diego vs. Dallas, with the Chargers winning.