In Sports, It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Ahhhh, fall.

The leaves are changing colors, barbecues are fired up, and the air is alive with college football. We’ve already seen BYU take down Oklahoma and USC fall to Washington, and we’re only three weeks in.

The NFL has kicked off with a bang, too. The Dallas Cowboys are playing in a new stadium with a gaping, obvious $40 million flaw hanging from the rafters. Both Michael Vick and Brett Favre are both on active rosters, and Terrell Owens is playing in a city nicknamed “The City of Good Neighbors.” Really.

Add in that we’re coming up on the playoffs for MLB—or in other words, the only part of the baseball season worth watching—and it becomes abundantly clear that this is one of the best times of the year to be sitting on your butt, watching sports.

I’ve taken the liberty of making a chart of all the major sports, and when the good stuff happens. When you look at the year as whole, it becomes clear when the best times are to be camped in front of the TV, soaking in all forms of sports-related goodness—and when it’s okay to schedule a vacation.

Take a look. Mouse over the different sections to see what they are.

If your tastes are at all similar to mine—and you’ll be lucky if they are, I have exceptional taste—you’ll agree that the year ends up about 50/50, with half the months of the year having great sports and the other half being a total snooze. If it’s unclear which are which, stay tuned and I’ll spell it out.

You’re welcome to disagree, but I insist that you do so with a chart as cool as mine.

The Bad

The Worst — July and August

Let’s face it—most people go on vacation in the late summer because there aren’t any sports worth watching. Once the NBA Finals are over, it’s a downright famine until football season starts.

Baseball season is in full swing (zing!), but I haven’t yet been able to get excited for every game of a 162-game season. We get a brief respite with the All-Star Game, and more particularly seeing Prince Fielder look like Hercules in destroying Albert Pujols in the Home Run Derby. But after that it’s back to the grind.

Seriously. Following the MLB regular season is like work.

The Floater — December

December is a forgotten month for sports. The NFL and NBA are in regular season, but college football has petered out. There are a couple of early-bird bowl games, but nothing worth breaking out the Pizza Rolls for.

It does have one saving grace, and that’s the few high-powered games they put on Christmas Day. The San Diego Chargers play the Tennessee Titans in an NFL matchup that could be good. The NBA is pulling out the Christmas stops this year though, with a Cleveland Cavaliers—Los Angeles Lakers matchup, plus Boston Celtics—Orlando Magic to bring back some playoff memories.

But for day-to-day sports, December is pretty lame.

In Between

Should Be Better — April through June

The NBA playoffs are rolling in these months, and as a big NBA fan I get pretty amped for that (can we please have the Kobe Bryant – LeBron James showdown in the NBA Finals this year? I don’t ask for much). But the NHL playoffs are also going on, even though nobody watching the NBA playoffs knows about them.

How is it that two major (stick with me) sports are having their playoffs at the same time, and it’s not seriously hardcore? Why am I not spending these entire two-ish months with my body painted in various team colors?

Frankly, the NHL might do itself a favor by moving their playoffs to the middle of summer. I know it’s a sport played on ice, but it’s indoors anyway. At least then they wouldn’t have to try so hard to climb out from under the rubble caused by the NBA demolishing its viewership.

Man, apparently I’m trying to make hockey fans angry today. Not a good idea.

The Good

The Bowls — January and February

Gripe about the BCS all you want—college football bowl games still rock. Even outside of the BCS there are a handful of games worth watching, and it makes for a great few days.

Then, stick around for the NFL playoffs.

Hint: Don’t expect to see the Arizona Cardinals there again this year. Just a hunch.

The Madness — March

March Madness is, hands down, the greatest sporting event in the country. Sixty-four games, spread over three weeks, with the chance of any George Mason or Davidson dethroning a Duke or a North Carolina.

Tons of games. Upsets. Brackets. Adam Morrison crying. Carmelo Anthony single-handedly dismantling Texas for the championship. Derrick Rose taking Memphis to the title game on a faked SAT score.

March Madness has it all.

The month is helped further by the NBA season drawing to a close, and teams jockeying for playoff position. But really, it’s all about college basketball.

The Best Season — September through November

College football, by itself, makes fall a season to look forward to. Throw in the NFL, too, plus the World Series, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

There’s something about college football that draws people in, that reaches beyond the obsessive sports fan and makes its mark on people who otherwise want nothing to do with sports. Unlike with pro sports, many people actually have a tie to a team because it’s their alma mater—with pro sports, the strongest ties we generally have are living in the same city as a team—and so everybody can get in on rivalries and trash-talking, even with zero knowledge of the game.

Football is great for talk, too. With games only once a week, you get to savor each one. Each one matters toward a team’s BCS or Super Bowl goals. And each one gets picked apart to the most minute detail, and every morsel of gameplay is savored.

And finally, it’s the season and the sports that lend themselves best to barbecuing. And that’s cause for celebration.

The Conclusion

More than anything, I’m glad we’ve made it through another bone-dry summer, and I can get back to enjoying real sports.

In a perfect world, we’d shift some of the sports around. We’d move something into the summer to ease the famine, and we’d split up the NBA and NHL playoffs. If the world truly were perfect, college football and the NFL would have different seasons so that I wouldn’t have to split my attention between them.

But I don’t have too much time to worry about that. There’s a game on soon, and I’ve got meat on the grill.