StatSheet’s founder Robbie Allen announced that he is working on the development of automated sports content at StatSheet. He plans to publish all of this information in the form of blogs.

This is definitely one of those ideas that is hard to swallow at first, but not completely crazy. Of course, if someone said that 20 years ago that hundreds of millions of people would engage in not stop writing online in the form of email, status updates, twittering, and blogging, most people would have laughed at you. But that is the world we live now. Are you going to get deep insightful witty prose that is going to make you tear up? Probably not. Could you possibly have an automated article that gives you a run down of the major events in a game, what the turning points were? Probably. How much would you actually care that a computer put that all together? Not much. Of course, if you look around at StatSheet’s network of sites and realize that was all built by one guy and a lot of automation, maybe this idea is not so pie in the sky.

The immediate response from the media is that he is trying replace sportswriters. I do not see it that way. What StatSheet is proposing is not going to replace the great sportswriters of our times. In fact, I think it will give those writers more time to write those creative and inspiring pieces that they for which they are so well revered. It will give them more time to spend talking to players and picking up rumors in the locker room. In other words, real sportswriters will be able to spend more of their time researching and creating the content that we really like. It can make sportswriting even better.

I think Allen’s goal that of 90% of the population thinking the version 1.0 content was written by a real live sports writer as a fairly high standard, but that is probably the standard that it needs to be at to succeed. I am very interested to read some of the content that comes off of StatSheet’s automated presses.

Have you ever wondered why NASCAR does not really have stats? Think about it. It is a sport where things are measured in 1/1000th of a second, yet the best stats you can find are start, finish, highest placed, and laps led? I am not that much of a NASCAR fan, but I have wondered for a while why there are not better stats and think this an area ripe for innovation. Enter StatSheet.

StatSheet has built a name for itself through its revolutionary college basketball stats and is now taking a stab at NASCAR. In addition to the usual (read:useless) NASCAR stats mentioned earlier, Statsheet’s NASCAR pages feature stats such as quality passes, green flag pass differential, and driver rating. For example, check out the stats from the 2009 Daytona 500, it becomes obvious that Jeff Gordon lost the race in the pits. Despite starting third and a positive pass differential, Gordon finished 13th. These stats paint a picture that you probably would not see just looking at regular race results.

From a pure fantasy perspective, stats like these can help actually help fantasy players determine who is running hot but not putting up the final numbers or who is outperforming his car. Currently, there is a dearth of quality information about NASCAR drivers, and information like StatSheet’s can transform how NASCAR is watched and perceived.

StatSheet Founder Robbie Allen told me, “I’ve barely scratched the surface with NASCAR and right now there isn’t much available on the web today. I plan on doing a lot more over the next year.” I cannot wait to see what comes next.