If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.
This does not include MLB baseball games. There are so many of those every day that another approach is needed. That approach is our special Daily MLB Forecast. Same deal, for the most part, with NFL football games. For those, see our NFL Forecast.
Download a full-size copy here.
Monday: Got a case of the Mondays? I can’t help you. At least not until Monday night, when there’s a reasonably interesting brain vs. brawn NFL matchup with the Jets playing the part of brawn and the Colts, brain. They’ve both got both, of course, but… every game needs a plot.
Tuesday: It’s international day — starting with German soccer, shifting to an international cycling championships, and ending with a great MLB baseball game between the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. They’re divisional opponents battling it out for the division title but it’s still a cross-border affair.
Wednesday: The Capital One Cup is a tournament in British soccer, open to any team in the top two divisions. That’s 92 teams — way more than normal Premier League play. Unfortunately for American viewers, we normally only get the games between two Premier league teams. That’s true in today’s game. In the evening, I suggest watching two Florida colleges battle it out on the women’s volleyball court.
Thursday: Only one of the semifinal teams in the WNBA has been decided yet, the Phoenix Mercury. Regardless of who is playing, the playoffs are the playoffs, and they’re worth watching! Later on, the New York Giants and Washington Redskins play. Although both teams have looked poor so far this year, the injury to Tony Romo, the quarterback of their divisional rivals, leaves their division wide-open. This should be a hotly contested game.
Friday: Date night! You have my permission to ignore sports completely.
Saturday: Start the day in England and work your way gradually westward. Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City is a compelling game, particularly since City just lost their first game of the year this past weekend. While UCLA vs. Arizona and Utah vs. Oregon are the only college football games between top 25 ranked teams, I’d rather watch Texas Tech and TCU battle it out for supremacy in the sneaky Texas smaller football program division. If you want to stick with baseball, it’s hard to find a game better than the Cubs and the Pirates.
Sunday: Get up early and root for the USA in the Rugby World Cup as we take on Scotland. The USA team lost its first match to Samoa, so this is virtually a must win game. (Note that I do not know if that is true. It just sounds good.) At 11 a.m. you get a rare chance to see Watford play soccer. This leads into a wonderful afternoon of vegging out on NFL football, men’s golf, women’s basketball, NASCAR, and an excellent MLS soccer game. Enjoy!
Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.