Life imitating arts?

News on 18 Sep 2010

A case of life imitating art was reported this week in the Albuquerque Journal, which revealed that an experiment by the editor of the University of New Mexico’s student newspaper Daily Lobo using a popular $39.95 video game made by Electronic Arts had accurately predicted the outcome of a college football game.
The experiment involved using the new EA Sports NCAA Football game, which replicates the strengths and weaknesses of college teams. The editor selected his university’s team, the Lobos, with a college team from Oregon as the opposition.
The final score of the computerised contest: Oregon 72, University of New Mexico 3.
Writing up his report, the experimenter noted that he was embarrassed “…to see how awful UNM’s football team rates out in EA’s latest game.” He went on to speculate whether this could be an indicator of “what potentially lies ahead for a program that is in, well, shambles.”
His conclusions triggered a strong reaction from the team’s coach, but the editor had the last word – EA Sports NCAA Football actually underestimated the Lobos’ failure. The real-life game – played five weeks later – and was won by Oregon 72 to the University of New Mexico’s 0!

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