Neal McHale/Sports Copy Editor
Jubilee Hall is where most students attending Seton Hall University with a major in a business-concentrated area calls home. Inside the six-floor complex is a variety of offerings—a trading room, where students can monitor stocks and market activity. The building also includes the Seton Hall Sports Polling Center, where once a month, students gather to conduct polls about current event topics in the world of sports.
The poll debuted in February, 2006 during the Winter Olympics. It was founded by Dr. Ann Mayo, the director of the Stillman School’s Center for Sport Management. As a faculty associate in the Department of Management, her research includes sports betting, the ethics of sport and intercollegiate athletics interests that led to the creation of the sports poll.
The Center houses the first university-based poll that has splashed into the multi-billion dollar sports industry. The results have provided important statistics and results on controversial issues surrounding the sports world.
Students poll people across the nation, allowing the center to gain knowledge on important sporting issues, while earning payment or meeting requirements for classes.
The poll usually takes place three days consecutively each month. The issues this year have ranged from sports gambling to hazing, to concussions and the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson controversies. The results provided have been shown on ESPN as well as in ESPN the Magazine. In addition to ESPN, the poll has appeared in the Bloomberg News, the Associated Press and Reuters and the findings of the poll have been published by numerous newspapers and magazines in the United States and internationally. Most recently, the results from a New Jersey-based poll about the Sayreville hazing incident were featured on the cover of The Star Ledger.
At the helm of the poll is its director Rick Gentile, who is an Emmy Award-winning sports broadcaster and former CBS Sports executive producer and senior vice president, whose career began with the Elias Sports Bureau, the renowned sports statistical service.
“I’ve been involved from the beginning, for about seven years now,” Gentile said. “We built the room, set the poll up and I have been here ever since.”
The results that come from the polls are from a variety of people both men and women.
“The accuracy of the polls are important but it is also the scientific side of things,” he said. “You can do polls online and ask people what they think but what we chose to do is over the phone for more accuracy and the polling community realizes that they are legitimate.”
Seton Hall students, as well as Gentile take great pride in conducting the poll as the people’s opinions are very important to them.
“I found out about the poll through the involvement fair and I knew it was for me, it is a lot of fun to conduct the poll and I learn a lot about what people believe is right,” regular pollster Marquise Moseley said. “Although it’s fun it’s also taken very seriously because you want to get the information as accurate as possible.”
The Sports Poll allows students to work not only on statistics but also to gain communication skills.
“It is a very simple process as the script is written out for you,” first-time pollster P.J. Carfagno said. “It is very accurate as well as easy to get effective results. I love being able to see a poll in the newspaper or magazine and realize that I had an effect on it.”
The Sports Poll is located in room 521 in Jubilee Hall. Students interested in participating can stop by the center or e-mail them at shusportspoll@gmail.com.
Charles Mul’ can be reached at Charlie.mule@shu.edu.
