Favorite Sports (as of 10/22/2013)
1. College Football
This one is pretty simple. I grew up in Nebraska, which is obsessed with the Huskers. I went to Notre Dame, which is one of the most football-crazed campuses you'll see. I've been watching college football for twenty years, which gives me some perspective and history with the sport that I don't have with every other sport. And finally, there isn't another sport that I know of where every single game matters as much as it does in college football. The 14 or 15 fall Saturdays loaded with football are among the very best sporting days of the year. Everything about them, from the always-surreal Corso mascot head moment to the late-late games (also known as nap time), helps to make college football my favorite sport.
2. College Basketball
The glowing tone of the previous paragraph probably makes it seem like college football is far and away my #1 sport. And when I'm in the middle of my weekly 14-hour marathon of games, it really doesn't seem like anything else could compare. That said, college basketball comes close. The game itself is awesome, packing a ton of drama into a relatively compact two-hour window. The 35-second shot clock allows for meaty possessions and provides a stern test to on-ball defense.* While other sports dismiss the little guy, college basketball embraces the smaller teams, giving nearly 350 squads their chance at a day in the sun. The colorful coaches and their personalities make their marks on their programs unlike any other sport, which results in an interesting paradox: While playing careers are shorter in CBB than in any other sport, the presence of legendary coaches and programs creates a sense of continuity that no other sport (not even college football) can match. And finally, the NCAA tournament is quite simply the best sporting event of the year, mixing drama and high-level play in perfect amounts.
*Shortening the clock is not the answer to the scoring "problem", although I could probably live with a 30-second clock.
3. MLB
Having college sports in my top two spots requires a bit of mental gymnastics. Yes, many of the teams I watch are very, very good at their sports, but they are clearly not playing at the level of NFL/NBA teams. That doesn't really seem to phase me though, as the intensity and importance of the college games have made them my favorite sports. When it comes to baseball though, I like watching the best. Seeing the best defensive plays, the craziest pitches, and the raw power of major leaguers is far superior to the college product in my opinion.
This distinction results in part from the fact that college football and basketball are more pervasive in our culture, but I think there is another reason as well. Whereas basketball and football are primarily about the fluidity, teamwork, and togetherness of a team, baseball is a very individualized sport. Yes, you need to work together with your teammates from time to time (most notably catchers and pitchers need to be on the same page), but most duties of a baseball player are performed largely by individuals acting alone. Because of this, watching lesser players just doesn't work quite as well, and MLB rules the day in baseball.
4. Tennis
If I made this list a few years ago, tennis would have been ranked much lower. The last couple of years have seen a big change for me, for a couple of reasons. First, I've started playing tennis a lot, so watching tennis takes on a bit of an educational bent for me. Second, and more importantly, the top players in tennis right now are just so good. Watching a match between two of the top 6 or 7 men, or between Serena and Azarenka is unlike any other current sporting event in terms of pure insane quality. I have yet to start regularly following non-grand slam tournaments, but tennis has settled in nicely in the middle of my list.
5. NFL
Hey there NFL. You are great. Dramatic playoff games, insanely high level play, actual focus on defense, fantasy football, year-round coverage of ridiculous minutia (draft combines, anyone?), minimal alternate uniforms.
However, you are also terrible. Concussion problems that aren't getting fully addressed. A weird penchant for pink, when it isn't that beneficial. A weird insistence on parity at the expense of all else. A terrible programming strategy that forces consumers to go through Direct TV to be able to watch the games they want to.
When I was younger, the NFL would have been #1 or #2 on this list. Now, it has drifted down the list (and I was tempted to put it lower). I still watch plenty of games, and I still root for my Buccaneers every chance I get, but the NFL just doesn't do it for me. Maybe that's why all of my fantasy teams are so terrible this year.
6. NBA
This one is easy. The playoffs are awesome. The regular season is terrible. Last season, I watched one regular season NBA game (and it was a doozy). I understand the business reasons for playing 82 games, but there is just no need to play that many games.* The lack of importance of individual games shows in the often lackadaisical playing you'll often see in regular season games. Additionally, this sort of practice leads to tired teams, commissioners fining coaches for resting players, and ridiculous spates of injuries. Just last year, we were without Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Rajon Rondo, Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Danny Granger, and a boatload of others for the playoffs. In turn, this makes the playoffs a little bit worse, as simply being healthy is often the difference between winning a ring and going home early. I will probably always tune in for the NBA playoffs, but until they fix the regular season, the NBA will stay here on the list.
*NBA team talent stabilizes almost as quickly as NFL team talent, but they play 5 times as many games. So that's a little unnecessary.
7. Golf
Major championships in golf are one of my absolute favorite sporting events, just behind the NCAA Tournament and just in front of game 163s. While I normally do my best to catch as much of them as I can, a funny thing happened this year; I was out of town for every single one of them. The funnier thing was that I didn't really seem to notice that much. I still love watching golf, but I think it's taken a backseat to a few other sports, and I'm not really sure why.
Favorite Teams (as of 10/22/2013)
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
There's no getting around it: The current Raheem Morris/Josh Freeman/Terrible Defense/MRSA/Greg Schiano/GIRAFFENSE era has seriously tried my patience as a Buccaneer fan. The team's results have been terrible and there is nothing to indicate that this is a good organization struck by bad fortune. In fact, the only recent season with promise was 2010, in which the Bucs excelled down the stretch in spite of some terrible bad luck with injuries. The Bucs play on national TV twice in the next two weeks, and while I'll most certainly watch, I'm not particularly excited about it. So yeah, things are rough.
All that said, they still take the #1 spot on this list, and it isn't particularly close. I've been a fan for so long, and there's so many great memories associated with the team that they aren't going anywhere on this list in the near future. They still have one of the best and most unique uniforms (Pewter wasn't really a color before 1997). They still play in a great stadium. There is still a lot of young, awesome talent that isn't too far away from being playoff worthy.* And if there is nothing else, there will always be the memory of Super Bowl XXXVII. The Buccaneers have always been something that is uniquely me, and I don't see me giving that up anytime soon.
*Call me crazy, but if they draft Marcus Mariota and a tight end (strong year for that with Eric Ebron, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, and Colt Lyerla) and then sign someone like David Shaw to be coach, I think this can be a ten win team next year.
2. Notre Dame Men's Basketball
3. Creighton Men's Basketball
Rooting for a college basketball team is particularly unique. The back and forth pace of play combined with the importance of each individual game. Yes, each game doesn't matter quite as much as they do in college football, but given the egalitarian nature of the Tournament, playing for seeding is much bigger of a deal than playing for bowl position. This leads to a minute-to-minute tension, at least for me, that makes college basketball fandom more a symptom of Stockholm Syndrome than any other sport. Thus, ND and Creighton check in just behind the Buccaneers.
4. Oakland Athletics
The A's are the hardest team to peg on this list. In a lot of ways, they should be higher. MLB has the best year-round visibility for me, so my offseason awareness of them is higher than that of my other teams. Baseball has the summer to itself, so I spend four months rooting for no one other than the A's. And most importantly, Billy Beane has been smartly leading the team for a decade and a half, which helps to ensure that there's always a method to the madness. That sort of confidence in an organization is important to me as a fan, because it helps to smooth over the bad periods (2007-2011) with assurance that success is around the corner.
In spite of all of that, I can also make the argument that they should be lower. While Billy seems pretty entrenched as GM, there's always the chance that he could leave. Since he's been with the team for the whole span of my baseball-aware life, that would bring about a pretty big sea-change for the A's. If they are suddenly no longer on the forefront of analytical thought, would I have the same connection to the team?* Additionally, the whole stadium fiasco could blow up at some point, which wouldn't necessarily result in a happy ending for the club. Considering that the franchise hasn't had a ballpark built specifically for it in 104 years, I don't feel particularly optimistic about the situation. Finally, they have by far the least personal history of any of these teams, as I've rooted for the Bucs and the "hometown" teams for twice as long, and I of course attended Notre Dame.
*I became a fan around the time of Moneyball, but the main thing that curated my fan-ship was the dominance of the Big Three (Hudson, Mulder, and Zito), as well as guys like Eric Chavez. The analytical process behind the team has been something that kept me coming back through the years, and helped to reinforce and strengthen my allegiance. Also, those uniforms are purty.
In the end, I think I'll always be an A's fan. While there is a lot of potential future variance in exactly how much I like them, the last decade has provided enough memories for me to hold onto through thick and thin.
5. Nebraska Football
6. Notre Dame Football
Whereas college football is my favorite sport, my college football allegiances fall towards the bottom of my team-specific list. Part of that is happenstance, but part of that is causal. I've always been a big college football fan, but the 2007 season is probably the most responsible for my current state of being more of a sport-wide fan than a team-specific fan. While the Irish and Huskers were busy going 8-16 (and it was a bad 8-16), the rest of football was having an insane season* (read my ten games post, and you'll see which of the write-ups seems the most gushing and enthusiastic). As a result, I drifted further towards being a fan of the whole sport. Of course, this low ranking doesn't mean I don't care deeply about these teams. Rather, I just care about them a little less than the others on the list.
*Best example of this: We went out to a bar to watch ND play UCLA. ND was winless and UCLA wasn't very good either. I spent most of the time focusing instead on the ridiculous LSU-Florida 4th-down bowl. That might be the very day where I made my final transition from specialist to general practitioner.
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