On Sunday, when the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts go head-to-head in the 44th annual Super Bowl, more women are expected to tune in to the game than ever before.

Media experts say the increase can be partially attributed to the fact that m ore women enjoy the game itself and the strategy behind the plays. (Really?)

An NFL spokesman says, "They [also] enjoy the opportunity to come together as a family or with friends to watch the event."

And they're becoming as avid fans as men. Women comprise 58 million of the 138 million Americans who consider themselves NFL fans , (that's according to Nielson).

Last year's game pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals drew in its largest audience ever (98.7 million viewers), and 38.3 million of those viewers were female--the most women to ever tune in to a Super Bowl.

(And it was the highest female television audience for a sporting event since the 1994 Olympics, when 38.6 million women tuned in to watch figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.)

The statistics also show that the number of women watching the Super Bowl has increased 8% over the past decade, and the trend is expected to continue this year in Super Bowl XLIV, with an estimated 50 million female viewers expected to tune in.

BTW:  A study by (Venables Bell and Partners), an independent ad agency in San Francisco, found that, in general, women look forward more to the commercials than the game, and they are most attracted to commercials with cute animals .

Men , on the other hand, tend to be drawn to ads marked by slapstick humor. (Case in point: Last year's Doritos commercial that ended with a man getting hit by a bus was a favorite among men.)