"Sport is America's newest and fastest-growing religion, far outdistancing whatever is in second place," says Charles S. Prebish, associate professor of religious studies at Pennsylvania State University. ...It is not merely "like" a religion, he argues, nor is it a "secular" religion, as other religion scholars and sociologists have postulated.

To Mr. Prebish, sport can and does provide its followers everything that traditional religions have provided over the centuries. He writes: "For me, it is not just a parallel that is emerging between sport and religion, but rather a complete identity. Sport is religion for growing numbers of Americans, and this is no product of simply facile reasoning or wishful thinking. Further, for many, sport religion has become a more appropriate expression of personal religiosity than Christianity, Judaism, or any of the traditional religions. ..."

Athletes and spectators for whom sport is religion may differ in their ideas about what the "ultimate" is, Mr. Prebish says, but sport is the vehicle by which all of them find it.