“Among the oddest findings: Fans tend to derive more pleasure from a close loss than a blowout win. "The less certainty, the greater the suspense, and the greater the enjoyment," says Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, a professor of communication at Ohio State University who surveyed 113 Midwestern college students. As part of that research, she tracked how 40 OSU students watched their beloved Buckeyes against their perennial rival, the University of Michigan. The results, published in the Journal of Communication in 2009, showed that even if fans are disappointed by the outcome, edge-of-the-seat endings make games worth watching. Jean Minnaar Jean Minnaar Jean Minnaar”