As I was sitting in class Friday, I noticed everyone around the room had their cell phones out, furiously typing away. This is a typical sight for a Friday afternoon class when priorities shift from schoolwork to meeting at Moonies for happy hour. However, there were no text messages being sent back and forth. Instead everyone, including me, was refreshing the World Cup Soccer draw, anxious to see the matchups for South Africa 2010.

This got me thinking. This event isn’t even an actual soccer game distracting us from whatever was being lectured about at the front of the room. This was just people pulling country names out of a pot to determine who will be playing against each other in seven months.

I even caught some of the draw on ESPN before class. The whole event was done up with celebrities including David Beckham, Charlize Theron and Desmond Tutu. It was all a bit extravagant for just a selection show, but really was it any different than the NFL or NBA drafts here in the U.S.?

The NFL draft takes place at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Mock drafts start coming out months before the actual draft, while speculation and hype run rampant before the first team even makes its selection — hoping they don’t end up with a Ryan Leaf. People even throw NFL draft parties that can rival some Super Bowl parties.

The question comes down to why. Why do we get so hyped up for these “sporting events” when there isn’t even a sport to watch? The answer is obsession. Our society is so involved with following sports that we hang on every move — even the ones that don’t come on the field but decide who will eventually be on the field.

According to the Nielsen ratings, the viewership of the NFL draft has increased 62 percent since 2002, with 7,456,000 people tuning in to see the 2008 draft. The NFL has recognized the massive spike in viewers and has even moved the draft from noon to 3 p.m. in an effort to reach as many viewers as possible.

With the World Cup draw, viewers expected the first country to be pulled at noon. However, when turning on ESPN, soccer fans saw sportscaster Bob Ley, retired American soccer player Alexi Lalas and other analysts engaged in a roundtable discussion about all the different teams. The first country wasn’t drawn for another hour.

So while it’s great the U.S. got placed in an easy pool, it’s important not to get wrapped up in the hype. We won’t find out how any of the World Cup draws pan out for several months, but there are plenty of actual games to get excited about in the meantime.

Cory Francer is a senior sport studies major. Contact him at cfrance1@ithaca.edu.