In soccer, as in any sport, pretty girls = good ratings

While it may be the oldest TV broadcasting maxim in the book, it is still interesting for me to hear it so prominently proclaimed.  In this short behind-the-scenes video from Fox Soccer Channel's Football Fone-In, we see male co-hosts Eric Wynalda and Nick Webster tout the addition of former Arizona State University soccer standout Temryss Lane (twitter) for boosting their show's ratings.  Again, it's an obvious connection, but it's almost flaunted by her male counterparts in the vid below.

The boost in ratings, furthermore, has not gone overlooked by Major League Soccer and their website - which produced an article on Lane's rise, put together a photo gallery of Lane that dates to her playing days at ASU, and featured her - along with the rest of the Football Fone-In cast - on yesterday's MLS video podcast.

What is Lane's role on the Fox Soccer Channel's prime call-in show, you might ask?  She is charged with breaking down highlights for the WPS as well as responding to e-mails and Tweets - not altogether unlike the role currently held by another female in the realm of cable sportsdom...that is, the role that Jenn Sterger plays on Versus' The Daily Line, a nightly sports talk show where Jenn blogs, conducts a live chat, and reads Tweets during the telecast.

The Daily Line hosts. And I ask, why is Jenn's head 

so disproportionately tilted?

I guess these women are just another pair in the long line of women relegated to the sidelines of sports broadcasting, seeing as both are typically shown (by themselves) to the fair right or left of the show's main desks.  But in the digital age, it's interesting to see that the sideline - for these two shows at least - is now the Internet...a place where both Lane and Sterger - as aspiring models - have their own followings.