The University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center did a Madden Football IQ study to look at how fans of Madden NFL interact with the sport of football. The results shouldn’t surprise anyone. They found that fans of Madden NFL are not only more knowledgeable about the game of football, but also more avid, devoted fans.

“For the second year, we delved into the relationship that the Madden NFL game forges with real football, and the study proved that it runs very deep. Madden NFL fans are not only extremely knowledgable about the game of football, they are equally as passionate,” said Paul Swangard, Managing Director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. “Twenty-one years of the Madden NFL franchise has created a smarter and more devoted football fan.”

The study surveyed more than 9,000 EA Sports Madden NFL players. The five categories of football knowledge tested were: Game Situations, General Knowledge, History, Rules and Business of Sport.

According to the survey, the more hours playing Madden NFL correlates to a more devoted and involved NFL fan. Mostly though 67% knew plays like passing routes and defensive schemes.

I doubt that Madden NFL can make me like the fact that Bret Favre is on the Vikings.