Updated with results from the Chase for the Nextel Cup and MLS Cup. Here's my listing of American sports, grouped in a similar manner to college teams, for the month of January 2007. This aims to be mostly a listing by popularity, trying to find where these sports stand in American culture. However, it's effectively a ranking by TV ratings.
| Sport | Comments |
|---|---|
| The Majors | |
| NFL | The king for the foreseeable future. Can the next commish maintain the advantage? |
| College Football | The Rose Bowl nearly got as good ratings as the Oscars, but losing all the stars of that game to the NFL could sap momentum. |
| (Estimated place for Winter Olympics) | |
| MLB | Even at their lowest, the World Series ratings still outdo the NBA Finals. |
| NBA | Ratings for Game 6: 10.1. Ratings for the National Championship: 11.2. Before you cite Bracket Madness, consider that certain high-profile regular season college games beat the pros. |
| College Basketball | A down year for the national championship game just barely fell behind the Daytona 500 in the ratings. Tournament is still America's office-pool past-time. Big regular season games actually beat NBA regular-season games. |
| Big Individuals | |
| Golf | If Tiger and Phil can have some nice rivalry moments at majors, maybe they'll lead golf to challenge for the major spots. |
| NASCAR | I scoffed at the 11.3 "record" rating for the Daytona 500 - so weak compared to the NFL and college football! (I only started comparing TV ratings this year.) But it only falls to the football and Olympics. The Chase gets 4's and 5's, lowering its rating by way of "core" fanbase counting more. That still absoultely crushes the Stanley Cup Finals. |
| NHL | With this rating, the "big individual" label is not quite accurate. This could be the new "mid-major" category. |
| Tennis | Turned out to be better and worse than expected. Better because of the WNBA stinkjob, worse because the US Open numbers looked like they would be over-3 and turned out to be rather mediocre. |
| IRL | This thing would rate a lot higher (where NASCAR is now) if as many people watched the IRL that watch the Indy 500. |
| Mid-Majors | |
| WNBA | Stop pumping up your league as a league on the rise and start actually becoming a league on the rise. That's all I have to say. |
| MLS | Beats the WNBA Finals by a good .2, but I'm partly convinced that's because they're on broadcast and the WNBA isn't even on regular ESPN. |
| Arena Football | The Arena League suddenly looks like it belongs. But can we get some ratings for more minor leagues, like lacrosse or the MISL, in here? |
If you have any suggestions for how I can contribute to Wikipedia pages on sports, bring it up on the talk page of either this page or my overall talk page.
WNBA Playoff Bracket
edit| Conf. Semifinals | Conf. Finals | WNBA Finals | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Los Angeles | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Seattle | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Los Angeles | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Western Conference | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Sacramento (DC) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Sacramento (DC) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Houston | 0 | ||||||||||||
| W2 | Sacramento (DC) | 2 | ||||||||||||
| E2 | Detroit | 3 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Connecticut | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | Washington | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Connecticut | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Eastern Conference | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | Detroit | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Detroit | 2 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Indiana | 0 | ||||||||||||
Morgan Wick salutes the
Detroit Shock 
2006 WNBA Champions
MLL Playoff Bracket
editThe Baltimore Bayhawks are not in this year's playoffs to defend last year's title.
| Conf. Finals (or Semifinals) | New Balance Major League Lacrosse Championship Game | ||||||||
| W1 | Denver Outlaws | 23 | |||||||
| W2 | San Francisco Dragons | 14 | |||||||
| W1 | Denver Outlaws | 12 | |||||||
| E1 | Philadelphia Barrage | 23 | |||||||
| E1 | Philadelphia Barrage | 17 | |||||||
| E2 | Boston Cannons | 12 | |||||||
Morgan Wick salutes the
Philadelphia Barrage
2006 New Balance Major League Lacrosse Champions
| Octofinals | Quarterfinals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| DC United | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Columbus Crew | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| DC United | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| New York Red Bulls | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| New York Red Bulls | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wilmington Hammerheads | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| DC United | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chicago Fire | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chicago Fire | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Kansas City Wizards | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chicago Fire | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| New England Revolution | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| New England Revolution | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rochester Raging Rhinos | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chicago Fire | |||||||||||||||||||
| Los Angeles Galaxy | |||||||||||||||||||
| Los Angeles Galaxy | 0 (5) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Roma FC | 0 (4) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Los Angeles Galaxy | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Colorado Rapids | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Colorado Rapids | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Real Salt Lake | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Los Angeles Galaxy | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Houston Dynamo | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Houston Dynamo | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Carolina Dynamo | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Houston Dynamo | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| FC Dallas | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| FC Dallas | 3 (5) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Charleston Battery | 3 (3) | ||||||||||||||||||
Morgan Wick salutes
Roger Federer
2006 US Open Men's Champion
Maria Sharapova
2006 US Open Women's Champion
Martin Damm and Leander Paes
2006 US Open Men's Doubles Champions
Nathalie Dechy and Vera Zvonareva
2006 US Open Women's Doubles Champions
Martina Navratilova and Bob Bryan
2006 US Open Mixed Doubles Champions
Dusan Lojda
2006 US Open Boys' Champion, and
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
2006 US Open Girls' Champion
IRL Standings
edit| Final Standings | Points Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Sam Hornish Jr. | 475 | Leader |
| Dan Wheldon | 475 | 0 |
| Helio Castroneves | 473 | -2 |
| Scott Dixon | 460 | -15 |
Hornish wins championship (Hornish: 4 wins, Wheldon: 2 wins)
Morgan Wick salutes
Sam Hornish Jr.
2006 IndyCar Series Champion
| Standings Entering Chase | Points Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Kenseth | 3785 | Leader | |
| Jimmie Johnson | 3728 | -57 | |
| Kevin Harvick | 3481 | -304 | |
| Kyle Busch | 3424 | -361 | |
| Denny Hamlin (R) | 3348 | -437 | |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 3338 | -447 | |
| Mark Martin | 3336 | -449 | |
| Jeff Burton | 3322 | -463 | |
| Jeff Gordon | 3321 | -464 | |
| Kasey Kahne | 3319 | -466 | |
| Tony Stewart ELIMINATED | 3303 | -482 | -16 |
| To be eligible for the Chase without being in top 10, a driver must be within 400 points of leader. | |||
MLB Race to the Playoffs
edit"Magic numbers" do not include tiebreakers. There can be a 0 magic number.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Chicago White Sox are not in this year's playoffs to defend last year's title.
| Division Series | Lg. Champ. Series | World Series | ||||||||||||
| Detroit | ||||||||||||||
| A's/Yankees | ||||||||||||||
| American League | ||||||||||||||
| A's/Yankees | ||||||||||||||
| Minnesota | ||||||||||||||
| NY Mets | ||||||||||||||
| Wild Card/Central (West?) Winner | ||||||||||||||
| National League | ||||||||||||||
| West (Central?) Winner | ||||||||||||||
| Wild Card/Central (West?) Winner | ||||||||||||||
College Football
editNFL
edit
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coming in February
College Basketball
editFlorida Gators
National Champions
NBA
editMiami Heat
2006 NBA Champions
NHL
editCarolina Hurricanes
2006 Stanley Cup Finals Champions
MISL
editYes, I will follow the MISL on here. Yes, that's a ridiculously minor sport.
Arena Football League
editCue spit take.