I heard this on a sports radio show and pondered. It really is a tough one. NBA: Argument for: In a best of 7 series, you pretty much have to be the better team to win 95% of the time, so in that sense, you absolutely HAVE to be the best team out of 30 teams to win the title. Argument against: 16/30 teams in the league make the playoffs, so anyone can get hot and make a run at it. MLB: Argument for: 162 game season is a survival of the fittest, battle of attrition. Baseball is a sport where anyone can beat anyone 3 out of 5 or 4 out of 7, so that makes dominance even more appreciated Argument against: It's fairly simple to build a good playoff club. You just need an Ace, good defense, etc... Teams can buy good squads making it less hard to compete NFL: Argument for: 16 game season, then win or you go home post season leaves no room for error, injury, etc... Argument against: There isn't a ton of parity (outside the Patriots). Any given year anyone can win it.
by the end of the year, in baseball and basketball, you pretty much know who the best teams are because of the length of the season. in the nfl though, you have 16 games which become make or break a majority of the time. if you sustain one injury at any point, your team can fold and in a rough and tumble sport like football, it can happen often. but, the jist is this. it comes down to which sport has the least margin for error and football clearly claims that.
I agree, but you made my point for me. In baseball, you know who the best team is, but that doesn't matter, because the D-Rays can take the Yankees in a series if things play out well. I think it's baseball. In basketball, you can pick out 10 teams who have no shot when the playoffs start. Football you can pick out a few teams who don't have a shot (the Titans this year) in baseball, literally 100% of the playoff teams can realistically win it.
Football Baseball: You can buy your way to the playoffs and it can become an individual sport. You can have one player hit some homers and a pitcher go lights out, and more often than not it will be a team that bought an ace. Basketball: Tougher, but teams can upgrade in one trade, or by one player in Free Agency. Football: Easily the hardest. Too many holes to fill or hurt you. You could have 21 pro bowlers and David Carr and you may be pressed to make the playoffs.
I'm going with baseball. Of the 3, their post season has the smallest percentage of the league that gets in. Clair's 7 game series arguement for basketball holds up here too. 1 Ace isn't enough. You can TRY to buy one, but that doesn't always work (ask the Yankees). In basketball, one guy can play out of his mind and carry your entire team for a week. One guy ain't carrying a baseball team. In football, it's one game. That's it. You don't have to be better than the other team, you just got to play better than them THAT day.
