Being a political scientist and a sports fan, I thought it would be interesting to see if there were any political trends as to predicting a winner in the Super Bowl. For the purposes of this post, I thought I would look at the years when the United States Senate has changed hands (i.e. shift in party majority) and did that correlate to a winner in the following Super Bowl. Here’s what I found:
1980: Republicans win Senate; 1981: Oakland (AFC) defeats Philadelphia (NFC)
1986: Democrats win Senate; 1987: New York Giants (NFC) defeats Denver (AFC)
1994: Republicans win Senate; 1995: San Francisco (NFC) defeats San Diego (AFC)
2006: Democrats win Senate; 2007: Indianapolis (AFC) defeats Chicago (NFC)
2014: Republicans win Senate; 2015: ?
I hoped to find a clear correlation between the party winning the Senate and the conference winning the Super Bowl. That I did not find. However, what I do see is that when the Republicans win back the Senate, the team from the West wins the Super Bowl, while the team from east of Mississippi wins the big game when the Democrats win back the Senate in the previous year. So, in all fun and games, let’s just say that Seattle will win the Super Bowl.
Politics Matters 