How to plan for the week of Nov 16-22, 2015

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.

For detail on the all-popular, all-powerful NFL, which groups most of its games on Sunday afternoons, see our NFL Forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: This first leg of the Ireland vs. Bosnia Herzegovina Euro 2016 qualifying playoff (say that ten times fast) ended in a 1-1 tie that you could barely see on television through the pea soup-thick fog. This game will decide which country qualifies for the most prestigious tournament either is likely to qualify for in the near future. The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team doesn’t need to worry about qualifying for things, they usually just win them. They’ll play an early season game against Ohio State. In the evening, the Monday night football game is likely to be a bit lopsided. Skip it, or watch it on an incline.

Tuesday: If you like soccer, today is going to be a fine day to call out of work and post up in front of the television. One of Sweden and Denmark will be celebrating, one will be walking quietly away and hoping no one notices. England hosts France for what is likely to be the most moving and most friendly of soccer games ever. Hard to imagine watching (much less playing in) that game without thinking about the attacks in France last week, some of which were aimed at a stadium where the French soccer team was playing Germany. In the evening, the U.S. Men’s National Team plays their second World Cup Qualifying match. They won their first one easily but this should be a tougher test.

Wednesday: 

Thursday: The Thursday night game in the NFL this week is kind of a dud. Oh sure, the Titans and Jaguars will still get a higher rating than anything short of an unscheduled moon walk but it’s not a promising matchup as far as these things go. Luckily, there are other things to watch — fun college football and basketball games and some tennis.

Friday: Date night! Get your sports viewing out of the way early today, starting with college basketball and brunch! If you don’t have that luxury, there’s more college basketball in the evening, featuring perennial tournament teams: Duke, VCU, Wisconsin, and Georgetown.

Saturday: Even for a fall saturday, this set of games is impressive. College football matches up some of its best teams, like Ohio State and Michigan State, TCU and Oklahoma. Soccer matches up some of its best in the world, with Liverpool and Manchester City playing in the British Premier League and Barcelona and Real Madrid meeting for another edition of El Clasico.

Sunday: Yes, there’s a full slate of NFL games. And on top of that, Major League soccer has the first leg of their semifinals. And, if you needed more excitement, NASCAR’s playoffs culminate with a race in Miami. But, with all that action, the most interesting sporting event of the day is not on TV — it’s a hurling exhibition at Fenway Park. Get your tickets today!

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.

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