According to numbers from a Harris Interactive survey of 2,309 people taken back in December, the NFL is the most popular sport in the U.S. No surprise; the television ratings tell us that every week. The number is down from 33 percent in 2005, and the lowest since 2003. Still, the NFL has a healthy lead on everyone else.
The other sports are where the numbers get interesting. Baseball, America’s pastime, is number two with 14 percent of the vote. Baseball’s been number two since the poll started in 1985 (that year, the gap between the NFL and baseball was only one percent). College football is third with 13 percent. The surprise here is that college football is behind baseball, but that can be explained. College football is most popular in the South (19%) and Midwest, and least popular in the East (6%). Baseball is most popular in the East (19%), as well as the South and Midwest. The East is the tiebreaker.
Auto racing (NASCAR) finishes with 9 percent, ahead of the NBA, college basketball and men’s golf. This is especially surprising; despite NASCAR’s ratings, it doesn’t get nearly the national attention of the three sports it bested. One hears far more about LeBron James, the Duke Blue Devils or Tiger Woods than about Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jimmie Johnson. Though surprising, this is nothing new. In 2005, NASCAR had 11 percent, higher than college basketball (5%), the NBA (4%) and the PGA Tour (4%).
That the NBA finished ahead of college basketball this year is a surprise as well; considering that the NCAA Tournament gets higher ratings than the NBA Finals, it would seem more probable for college basketball to finish ahead of the pros — especially considering the amount of hate Joe Sportsfan has for the NBA. 2005 was the only year so far where college football finished ahead of the NBA; interesting to note that in 2002, the NBA had an 11 to 4 lead on college basketball. Since the new television deal with ABC and ESPN, the league has seen its popularity diminish.
The PGA Tour’s low result isn’t too surprising — golf’s major events get lower ratings than the Superbowl, BCS, World Series, NBA Finals, NCAA Tournament and even last year’s World Cup Final. The Masters is the only golf major that routinely even approaches double digit ratings — and only when Tiger Woods is contending. The U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship are usually hard pressed to net a 7.0 rating — especially that latter two events. What might worry the PGA Tour the most is that its tied with hockey — but then again, hockey ranked ahead of both the PGA Tour and the NBA in 2005, and that didn’t hurt either sport.
Here are other notes from the poll:
- African Americans: highest number of pro football fans (35%) and the lowest number of college football fans (7%). As many likely already know, African Americans also make up the smallest number of baseball fans (7%).
- Liberals: largest number of baseball fans (20%), twice the amount of Conservative baseball lovers (10%). Liberals also make up the smallest number of NASCAR fans (4%).
- Only 5% of college graduates ranked auto racing as their favorite sport. Considering that liberals and college graduates are the least enamored with NASCAR, expect someone at FOX News Channel to call those who do not like the sport “East Coast, Liberal elites”.
- Only 3% of all respondents picked one of the five women’s sports listed (tennis, college basketball, the WNBA, soccer and golf) as their favorite sport.
- Somehow, bowling got 1% of the vote.
