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. You can also get daily updates from our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.
Download a full-size copy here.
Monday: This is the first Monday in a few months that we won’t have an NFL football game to watch. As a consolation prize, a men’s college basketball game between the number 2 and number 3 ranked teams in the country is not bad.
Tuesday: The Harlem Globetrotters are turning 90! That’s an amazing achievement for a team that has gone through so many different forms. Believe it or not, there was a time when the Globetrotters regularly took on NBA teams and won. I’m hoping the hour-long celebration of the team on ESPN2 covers some of its history. I’m sure it will be enjoyable.
Wednesday: It’s not really a rivalry, but ever since that terrible Jean Claude van Damme movie, the matchup between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks has had a special place in many hearts.
Thursday: Two classic matchups of power-house programs in college and professional basketball highlight tonight’s sporting options.
Friday: It’s always interesting when the Cavaliers and the Timberwolves play because of the trade they made before last season to send Kevin Love to the Cavaliers and Andrew Wiggins to the Timberwolves. As good as Love is, many Cavaliers and NBA fans think Wiggins would have been a better fit with LeBron James. Over in the NHL, the reigning dynastic team, the Blackhawks, play against a young team that’s hoping to build into the next dynasty, the Buffalo Sabres.
Saturday: The first day of the NFL playoffs is upon us. I’ll probably write some detailed game previews, but suffice it to say that the NFL will overshadow everything else for the next few weeks. If you’re antsy for football, watch the FCS college championship game before the NFL gets started. North Dakota State has won the last four titles and will be going for a fifth!
Sunday: If you’re not picky about which kind of football (soccer or American) you want to watch, you can easily spend 12 hours watching football today. Start with an FA Cup triple-header and then move over to the NFL’s second playoff double-header of the weekend. Sounds pretty good to me!
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.