Category: Sports Forecast

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 full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: It’s a good day for living on the west coast or being a vampire. The best of today’s sports start at 9 p.m. with the Australian Open, which continues through to around six in the morning, and 10:30 p.m. with a matchup of the best two teams in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs.

Tuesday: A relatively uneventful day of sports, to be honest.

Wednesday: Today has the same format as yesterday: soccer, hockey, tennis, but each one is slightly more compelling than Tuesday’s version. I’m particularly looking forward to a chance to see by far the best team in hockey right now, the Washington Capitals, try to deal with a physical and desperate Philadelphia Flyers. In tennis, the Australian Open semifinals begin.

Thursday: I just want to register a complaint to the sports gods. With all of the national sports channels, how can it be that no one is televising the NCAA men’s basketball game between Iowa and Maryland, two top 25 teams. Pah.

Friday: Date night! One of the joys of the FA Cup soccer tournament in England is that you get to pull for true Davids like Derby County in games against insane Goliaths like Manchester United. Come on Derby!

Saturday: If you wake up early or are having trouble sleeping, turn on the Australian Open and catch the women’s finals. If you don’t get much sleep, don’t worry, you can spend the rest of the day blearily and happily in front of the TV, watching excellent basketball games between Louisville and Virginia and Kentucky and Kansas in men’s college basketball, and between the San Antonio Spurs and soap-operatic Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA.

Sunday: Sports fans everywhere mourn the first Sunday in 20 weeks without a single real NFL football game. Instead, we get the men’s Australian Open finals in tennis, a sub-par nationally televised NBA game, a nice men’s international soccer friendly between the U.S. and surprisingly dominant Iceland, and a couple of all-star games. I’m actually interested in watching the hockey one, because they’ve gone to an all three-on-three format which should truly showcase the talent on-hand.

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.

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 full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.

Download a full-size copy here.

Monday: It’s a hard choice between watching the always dramatic Pittsburgh Penguins play against the always solid St. Louis Blues or a rematch of last year’s NBA finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors. I think the scale tips towards basketball, or at least it would if I wasn’t a little sportsed our from the long weekend of football.

Tuesday: It’s the best men’s college basketball night of the week with a triple-header of games involving two top 25 teams and/or the likely number one draft pick in next year’s NBA draft.

Wednesday: Sports’ longest season starts with tennis’ Australian Open. Tennis players play for about 11 months of the year, but most fans only care about the four major tournaments. This is one of them, so pay attention! Later on, there are two solid mid-season NBA and NHL games to choose from.

Thursday: More tennis, more NBA basketball, more NHL hockey, although arguably each game today is better than its counter-part was yesterday.

Friday: Date night! If your date is out of town, it wouldn’t be too bad to stay in and watch the hottest hockey team in the league, the Washington Capitals, play against their old coach’s new team, the Anaheim Ducks.

Saturday: Without any NFL playoffs football today, the sports scene dims but only slightly. The top options of the day are a great men’s college basketball game between two of the top three teams this year, the Maryland Terrapins and Michigan State Spartans, and a friendly match between Ireland and the United States in women’s international soccer. Not too shabby!

Sunday: There are only three NFL football games left this year and two of them are today. Don’t miss them! If you want to make a day of it, you can catch a game and a half of British soccer and most of a great hockey game before the football starts.

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.

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: The big ticket event of the day is the national championship game in college football. There’s a big portion of the sports watching population that’s more into college than professional football, and for them, this is a big day.

Tuesday: Soccer in the morning and basketball in the evening. It’s not a bad way to go, which is good, because if you wanted to, you could spend four days this week so occupied. If it’s a close game, the best of the day will be the basketball game between the number one ranked Kansas Jayhawks and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Wednesday: Liverpool vs. Arsenal is a heck of a mid-week soccer game. If you can find a way to sneak out of work at 3 p.m., do so, you won’t be sorry. In the evening, you can take your choice of a college basketball game involving the likely number one pick in this year’s NBA draft and an NBA game featuring a bunch of players who were high picks themselves.

Thursday: If I had my pick of the games today, I think I’d watch the hockey game between the current dynasty in the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks, and the most storied team in hockey history, the Montreal Canadians. There’s a not dissimilar game in the NBA as well, the dynastic San Antonio Spurs against the team with the consensus best player in the world, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Friday: Date night! There’s nothing you can’t miss today. Go out!

Saturday: The second weekend of the NFL playoffs is even more compelling than the first and in many ways, it’s better than the next two as well. The four best teams in the league this season face the winners of last weekend’s playoff games after having a week off. Don’t mess around this weekend, if you’re gonna watch sports, watch the football.

Sunday: The same goes for today, if you’re going to watch sports, watch football! If you’re going to watch other sports, there are definitely some good options, including men’s and women’s college basketball, British soccer, and NHL hockey.

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.

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.

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 week is dominated by football, soccer, and basketball. It starts off with a day that features the first two — I’m a sucker for watching the military academies play football and over the past couple decades, Navy has been the best of the bunch. They play against Pittsburgh in a bowl game at 2:30. In the evening, the Monday night NFL game is a giant one. Denver and Cincinnati, two of the hottest teams in the league over the first three quarters of the season, both have something to play for. Denver has more at stake, because they could conceivably miss the playoffs if they lose, but Cincinnati wants to win to guarantee themselves a bye week and extend the time their quarterback has to heal from a broken thumb. Football, thumbs, what else could you want?

Tuesday: The most shocking thing in all of sports may be that Leicester City is at the top of the British Premier League standings — they play against Manchester City in a rare Tuesday BPL game. There’s a trio of college football bowl games to feast on, they feature another military academy, Air Force, and LSU, with its star running back, Leonard Fournette.

Wednesday: With the excitement of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, followed quickly by the last weekend of the NFL season coming up, this could easily be a forgettable sports day. I doubt it will be. With strong college football bowl games, an excellent NHL matchup, and a classic college basketball rivalry, it’s too potentially strong to go wrong.

Thursday: Happy New Year’s Eve! Don’t do anything you would want me to tell you not to do. Or at least, don’t do anything such that if I told you not to do it, you’d actually listen. Whatever. You could just stay in and watch college football. It’s hard to underestimate how good the two college football playoff semifinal games could be. This is only the second year of there being a college football playoff and if last year was an indication, it’s going to be great! If you’re determined to be watching sports when the ball drops, the basketball game between BYU and Saint Mary’s will be on.

Friday: It’s much more plausible to watch sports all day today than it was yesterday. New Year’s Day has traditionally been dominated by college football, and there are a bunch of great options (so many, in fact, that the words spilled out of their box on my calendar.) In recent years, the NHL with its outdoor “Winter Classic” has made serious inroads and for many people that is now the main sporting attraction. This year’s game pits age old rivals, Montreal and Boston, against each other in Massachusetts’ Gillette Stadium.

Saturday: Maybe this is really the down day in the sports week. Wedged between New Year’s Day and Sunday, this Saturday doesn’t have quite as much to offer as most. Then again, it may be time to break those resolutions you made. One day is enough, surely.

Sunday: The last day of the NFL’s regular season should bring some thrills. There should still be one or two playoff spots up for grabs and playoff positioning to fight for. In other sports, there are good men and women’s college basketball to watch and some decent soccer on in the morning. 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.

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 week is dominated by football. College football bowl games, like today’s between Western Kentucky and South Florida, abound. The NFL, which dominates the schedule all fall, tries to sneak in even a few more games at the end of the season. Meanwhile, other sports like soccer, back off a bit. Today’s soccer game between Arsenal and Manchester City is one of the last major televised soccer games until after Christmas.

Tuesday: Before the NHL starts its three day holiday break, catch a very good double-header on NBC Sports Network. The early game features one of the top teams in the league, the Montreal Canadiens. The second game is a fierce rivalry game between the Los Angeles Kings and their in-state rivals, the San Jose Sharks.

Wednesday: With all the college football bowl games on the calendar, it’s hard to know which ones to make time for. If you have to choose, I would choose today’s two games. The games between Boise State and Northern Illinois and Georgia Southern and Bowling Green are the best of college football. These programs aren’t so big to be completely corrupted by the sport’s hypocrisy and they’re all so used to winning that the games should be very competitive.

Thursday: For all of the NFL football fans out there who also celebrate Christmas, it’s a small but much appreciated blessing that the game tonight is meaningless. There’s really no need to watch the Raiders play the Chargers but if you’re just hanging out at home, eagerly anticipating tomorrow’s Chinese food, you could spend three hours in worse ways.

Friday: Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. The NBA long-ago decided that they wanted to be the Dos Equis of Christmas — you don’t have to watch sports on Christmas, but if you do, you watch the NBA. This year there’s a quintuple header, starting at 12 p.m. ET and ending around 1:30 a.m. ET. The highlight will be a re-match of last year’s finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors. That’s enough to make the Christmas celebrators jealous!

Saturday: Boxing Day brings a minor return to normalcy — there’s British soccer in the morning and early afternoon, there’s a great college basketball game, and an excellent NHL hockey game in the evening. The NFL game between Washington and Philadelphia is a vital one for both teams.

Sunday: Well now. I guess none of the other sports want to mess with the NFL today. There’s basically no competition to the 1,000 pound gorilla sports league. Check out our NFL forecast for more information about which games to watch.

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.

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: The story of British soccer this season has been the precipitous fall of last year’s champion, Chelsea. After 15 games, they’re in 15th place out of 20 teams. That’s frankly absurd given how much more money Chelsea has to spend on players than the other teams around them in the standings. Today they’ll try to get back on track against Leicester City. Leicester has been the exact mirror image of Chelsea so far. After climbing out of last place at the end of last season, they’re a surprise second place so far this year. In the NFL, the Giants and Dolphins both still have hopes of making the playoffs but they won’t anymore (or at least not if they are rational) if they lose this game.

Tuesday: Today’s calendar looks like an NHL hockey sandwich, with men’s college basketball as the bread. Delicious.

Wednesday: The U.S. Women’s National Soccer team continues its interminable victory tour tonight with a friendly against their once and future rival. China. The Pittsburgh Penguins will be interesting to watch as they take on the Boston Bruins less than a week after firing their coach.

Thursday: Catch a preview of the NCAA women’s volleyball finals by watching both semifinals on ESPN2. Catch a potential preview of the NBA championships by watching Oklahoma City vs. Cleveland on TNT. Catch a preview of… absolutely nothing by watching the NFL game between St. Louis vs. Tampa Bay on NFL Network.

Friday: Date night! Celebrate the little guys by watching the Division III football championships. Or just lounge around and watch a very good NBA double-header on ESPN.

Saturday: The college football bowl season begins with a full slate of games. The general quality of the games gets better over time, so the first day is usually nothing to write home about. In this case, some of the bowls at least feature geographic rivalries. The women’s NCAA volleyball championship is on ESPN2 and will be worth checking out. In hockey, two of the top teams this year, Montreal and Dallas, play one of only two games against each other this year. The NFL colonizes Saturdays with a moderately interesting game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets.

Sunday: Even more now than ever, because of the impending real life playoffs and the current fantasy football playoffs, the NFL rules the day. If you’re looking for non-football sports to watch, you do have some excellent options. There are two watchable British soccer games in the morning, a trio of college basketball games, men’s and women’s in the afternoon and evening, and little bits of cycling and figure skating as a bonus!

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.

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: If you didn’t get enough soccer over the weekend, there’s one last British Premier League game. Just like the NFL, the BPL makes Monday a part of the weekend. This Monday’s game is Crystal Palace vs. Everton. Hard to root against a team called Crystal Palace! In the evening, before the NFL’s extension game, a woefully exciting NFC East matchup, watch a little bit of Indiana men’s college basketball and root for IUPUI, the best acronym in the game.

Tuesday: Take a trip to Germany for some UEFA Champions League soccer in the afternoon and then return to Indiana, (which has apparently become the official state of Dear Sports Fan,) for some NBA basketball. The Golden State Warriors will go for their 23rd win in a row — they haven’t lost yet this season! Seriously, any time you get a chance to watch Golden State this year — do it. They are amazing. Flip back and forth with an NHL game between two of the top teams in the league right now, the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals.

Wednesday: Oh, sure, there’s more Champions League soccer in the afternoon, and that’s probably the best soccer in the world, but what I’m excited about is the hockey game. This may be my first experience of living in Boston when the Bruins are playing their age-old arch-enemies, the Montreal Canadiens. It’s like Sherlock vs. Moriarity with sticks.

Thursday: The United States Women’s National Soccer team was supposed to play an exhibition match against Trinidad and Tobago this past Sunday. They had to cancel it because the field conditions were so poor. Hopefully they’ll get things right this time and give these athletes a field they can safely play on. In the NFL, the Super Bowl aspiring Cardinals play a suddenly desperate Minnesota Vikings team that was blown out last weekend. It should be an interesting game.

Friday: Date night! Sports schedulers also know that, so Friday night tends to be when they put the less high profile sports. Sometimes those are the most fun to watch. Today’s slate has a great women’s basketball game and two college playoff games, one in Division 1-A football and one in women’s volleyball.

Saturday: It’s a sentimental day of sports with the traditional Army loss to Navy in football and a golf tournament that pairs fathers and sons in teams. I can’t wait to watch some of the father/son pairings argue about the best way to drive a golf cart.

Sunday: Another Sunday whose non-football sports can at least rival its football. In addition to the normal festival of football, you can watch three great soccer games: one from the British Premier League, one the NCAA men’s championship game, and another women’s international friendly. College basketball abounds. My suggestions are a women’s game between Stanford and Texas and a men’s game between Syracuse and St. John’s.

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.

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: Skip sports today, at least sports on TV. The big Monday Night Football game is a dud. There’s no major soccer on. Go find a high school basketball game or college hockey game to go to, sit up front, and enjoy yourself.

Tuesday: The highlight tonight is a great mid-season NHL double-header. The Wild and Blackhawks are serious rivals who enjoy competing with each other. If you can stay up, watch the ongoing soap opera that is the Pittsburgh Penguins as they travel out west to play the sharks.

Wednesday: Southampton doesn’t have much of a chance against Liverpool, DePaul has even less of a chance against Connecticut, but the New York Islanders, long the forgotten cousin of the New York Rangers, are now playing them with on at least an even keel.

Thursday: If you’re a basketball fan, you’ll probably gravitate toward the very respectable NBA double-header tonight. I’d recommend the NFL game. I’m not a big fan of Thursday night games, but this one is loaded with drama. The Green Bay Packers, long the quality of the NFC North division, are reeling after four losses in their last five games. The Detroit Lions, long the cellar-dwellers of the NFC North division, would like nothing better than to send them into an even deeper spiral.

Friday: Date night! If you live in NY, do a little role play with your partner. Have one of you throw on a Knicks jersey and the other a Nets jersey. Then pretend to meet in a bar by flirtatiously fighting over whose team is the best. Or, realistically, the least bad.

Saturday: Most college football conferences have their championship games today and a bunch of them should be really good games. The British Premier League slate is pretty weak. There’s a rare and compelling college men’s hockey game on NBC Sports Network that’s worth checking out, as are men’s and women’s NCAA basketball games in the afternoon.

Sunday: Add a great day of soccer to a normally excellent day of football and you’ve got an impressive Sunday of sports. The soccer triple-header is worth doing — witness excellence at the women’s college, men’s professional, and women’s international levels!

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.

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: It’s a big day for Boston. Their beloved Patriots play against the Buffalo Bills with their undefeated season on the line. Meanwhile, Celtics fans will be watching the college basketball game between Marquette and LSU and drooling over the thought of adding LSU’s Ben Simmons to their squad next year.

Tuesday: Good double-headers in soccer and basketball. Our soccer fare involves some three very well-known teams — Roma and Barcelona, who play each other, and Arsenal who play a less internationally known team from Croatia, Dinamo Zagreb. Later on, the Atlanta Hawks play the Boston Celtics followed by the Golden State Warriors beating the Los Angeles Lakers by 45 points.

Wednesday: Over in Europe, the Champions League returns and the games to watch both involve teams from Manchester. Man United plays against the Dutch team, PSV Eindhoven while Man City faces the Italian powerhouse, Juventus. Back in the United States, we’ve got some women’s college volleyball and a doozy of an NHL hockey game.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! As you probably know, Thanksgiving is all about family. And food. AND FOOTBALL. Enjoy the day, however you choose to celebrate!

Friday: Two sports are trying to get in on the fun of the day-after-Thanksgiving: college football and hockey. If you want to spend all day watching these two sports instead of shopping frantically, you can! Start with Navy vs. Houston at noon, switch over to hockey with the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers at 1 p.m. on NBC. Stay there for at least the start of the Chicago Blackhawks vs. Anaheim Ducks, and then complete the sandwich by switching back to college football with TCU vs. Baylor. Also, have some left over turkey.

Saturday: Someone decided to put all the best college football rivalries on a single day and today is the day. Ohio State vs. Michigan, USC vs. UCLA, Florida vs. Florida State, Stanford vs. Notre Dame, and Oklahoma State vs. Oklahoma are all great college football games. It’s almost too much of a good thing.

Sunday: Talking about too much of a good thing, that’s what you get when you add two Major League Soccer semifinal games and the Canadian Football League’s championship game to the normal Sunday NFL games. Sheesh!

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.