Data: Interest Tumbles For NFL Draft

PHILADELPHIA - An analysis of seven years' of Google Trends data about the NFL draft shows interest down sharply for the football league's premier offseason event.

Google tracks historic search data back to January 2004 and any way you slice the numbers, fans' interest in the draft is way down.

The numbers also show that last April's draft, which featured Tim Tebow, drew huge interest, making this year's draft pale in comparison. So it may be the lack of a Tebow, even more than the labor dispute, that is pushing overall interest in the draft down.

MyFoxPhilly looked at two Google databases that are publicly available, for national interest in the annual NFL draft.

The overall Google Trends database shows current searches for the term "NFL draft" stand at 1.3, with 1.0 being the average interest - for any week since January 2004. (Note: this number may change slightly in the next few days.)

In other words, people are looking for basic NFL draft info at a rate of just 30 percent more than usual - just a week before 2011 draft week.

Last year, that was number was 2.2 in mid-April 2010, so interest in the draft this year is down 36 percent, nationally.

The switch to a three-day draft and the Tebow drama made the 2010 draft a big hit on the Internet. Draft week itself was at a number of 11.0 last year. The previous highs were a 6.0 in 2006 and 2007.

Interest In NFL Draft: Two Weeks Before The Event (Ave. Interest During Year = 1.0)

Overall, Philadelphia ranks 6th nationally among areas with the highest interest in the NFL draft. Ohio and Wisconsin have much higher interest levels since 2004, and Bala Cynwyd is the most active local town researching the draft.

A second way to look at the draft's popularity is by running the same check on "NFL Mock Draft," the most popular search for draft info.

Again, the same trend emerges nationally. In April 2010, people were searching for mock drafts at a rate of 3.45 compared with 1.55 this year in the week prior to the draft.

The third look at the draft uses Google Insights, which compares all NFL draft searches since 2004 to the most-popular search: last year's Tebow draft.

The Tebow draft ranks at 100 (on a scale of 0 100), while the 2006 draft ranks at a 50. In April 2010, pre-draft interest was at 20, compared with 15 this year. So by Google Insights' measure, interest is down 25 percent.

The huge success of the Tebow Draft and last year's Super Bowl, combined with the lockout, has put all NFL numbers in a tailspin.

But one clear trend emerges: the draft is big business for the NFL.

For example, since 2004, here are the 10 most popular searches related to the NFL on Google:
 

If that isn't enough, on the Google Insights scale, from 2004, here are the five biggest weekly searches related to the NFL, with last year's playoffs at 100 (on a scale of 0 to 100), when people searched for the word "NFL"

By that measure, the Tebow Draft only trails the 2010-11 NFL postseason, for the number of general searches about the NFL since 2004.

It remains to be seen if Tebow's former teammate, Cam Newton, can generate the same interest on draft day.

Cam Newton's Google numbers last season were higher than Tebow's numbers