With the rise of ESPN and social media, sports trends have been taken to new heights.

Two of the biggest sports stories of the past year were the “Linsanity” surrounding New York Knicks’ point guard Jeremy Lin and “Tebow-Mania” with New York Jets’ quarterback Tim Tebow.

Senior political science major Phil Mimica and his friend PJ Grund co-write the Tumblr-hosted blog “Whiteline-Chicago,” where the two have made it their jobs to track trends that pop up on the web, as well as sports trends.

“The great thing about sports is the unpredictability–it’s what makes the world of sports so appealing and fun to watch,” Grund said.

Grund, who writes on the blog under his Twitter username @PJ_Pesci, said the “Linsanity” trend made him, a non-Knicks fan, tune in to a few games.

“‘Linsanity’ was fun to watch. Nobody expected a no-name Asian guy from Harvard to pop up out of nowhere and help revitalize the Knicks,” he said. “It was unpredictable. So yeah, naturally people are going to talk about it. On our site, we talked about it from a comical standpoint, but it truly was exciting.”

Mimica, known on the site as @phillydonuts, said now that Lin is out for the season with an injury, the “Linsanity” trend will likely die down.

“We can see ‘Linsanity’ fall since he’s now out for the season–unless he has another breakout start next season,” Mimica said.

Tebow, on the other hand, will be a trend that might stick around, mainly because of the market in which he plays, Mimica said.

“Tebow will be able to sell for a long time based on his character,” he said. “When Tebow was traded to the Jets, I’m sure the executives at ESPN were high-fiving each other. Bigger markets allow trends to survive.”

Grund said that he felt the Tebow-mania trend took off because of the unpredictability behind Tebow’s success based on his previously set expectations.

“’Tebow-Mania’ was a huge trend. I’ll be the first to say I didn’t think he was going to be a good quarterback when he entered the league. I still don’t think he is a good quarterback now even,” he said. “But yet, the guy was on a winning streak in Denver. After every game the Broncos won with him playing quarterback, especially when they defeated the Bears, I was just left scratching my head. The whole thing was unpredictable.”

It is tough to say what the next big sports trend will be, but as Mimica and Grund have discovered, the trends are unpredictable.

“Vegas can place odds, and ESPN can analyze all they want, but nobody knows for certain what the outcomes will be or what will happen at any given moment,” Grund said. “That’s why people get excited over it. That’s why trends start.”

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7942 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.