Ultimate Team Rankings

ESPN.com have released a list of their rankings of who are the top teams to support at current out of all the teams in the US Big 4 Sports. These rankings take several factors into account including,

-Bang For The Buck (BNG): Wins during the past three years (regular season plus postseason) per revenues directly from fans, adjusted for league schedules.

-Fan Relations (FRL): Openness and consideration toward fans by players, coaches and management.

-Ownership (OWN): Honesty and loyalty to core players and local community.

-Affordability (AFF): Price of tickets, parking and concessions.

-Stadium Experience (STX): Quality of arena and game-day promotions as well as friendliness of environment.

-Players (PLA): Effort on the field and likability off it.

-Coaching (CCH): Strength of on-field leadership.

-Title Track (TTR): Championships already won or expected in the lifetime of current fans.

NFL Ranks - Out of 122
1. Packers
3. Saints
7. Steelers
14. Colts
20. Falcons
21. Ravens
38. Patriots
45. Jaguars
47. Chiefs
51. Eagles
59. Buccaneers
61. Seahawks
71. Cardinals
74. Bears
76. Jets
77. Texans
81. Giants
83. Rams
86. Broncos
90. 49ers
91. Browns
94. Lions
96. Chargers
97. Panthers
98. Titans
101. Dolphins
102. Cowboys
104. Raiders
106. Vikings
107. Bills
121. Redskins
122. Bengals

Surprised to see the Cards so high, and yes, that's AZ not St. Louis.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/teamrankings#table

My teams added up:

Broncos - 86
Rockies - 8
Thunder - 6
Maple Leafs - 120

Nice square 220

Bucs - 59
Lightning - 2
Spurs - 5
Rays - 25

91 overall.

Skins 121st! Are you listening Mr Snyder?...

I win the overall stakes...

Packers - 1

1 Overall

crazy_dave23 wrote:I win the overall stakes...

Packers - 1

1 Overall

And what's the odds next years Super Bowl winners are top of the NFL ranks at least?

Quite surprised to see the Pats so low, they are generally seen as one of the best organisations in the NFL so interesting to see them in the low 30s

'-Players (PLA): Effort on the field and likability off it.'

Bambam - Brady can't have any claims in too many popularity contests and os often said to be arrogant on teh field, plus Belicheats antics won't have won the franchise too many friends.

Shocked to see the Jets as high as 76..........

not a fan of any of these, but surprised they're so low...

101. Dolphins
102. Cowboys
106. Vikings

where are the 20 points the Cowboys missed out on
Jerry won't be happy

Seriously ,no suprise in the top 3
Packers & Steelers come across as the best run organisations

TM Moot wrote:not a fan of any of these, but surprised they're so low...

101. Dolphins
102. Cowboys
106. Vikings

My reasoning would be:

101. Dolphins
Lose out on the Bang for the Buck and the Title Track categories.

102. Cowboys
Probably Bang for the Buck again, not an awful lot to celebrate over the past couple of years. Also probably ownership and affordability go against them (you could also argue players and title track but I won't be too mean....)

106. Vikings
.....because I'm saving all my venom for the Vikings. The first obvious point has to be stadium experience. If you are expecting to play in a dome stadium and you get there to find it full of snow you probably don't have the greatest stadium. Also when there is a good chance your new stadium could be 2,000 miles away from your current home the fans aren't likely to be too happy. Which brings us to ownership, listed in the category is loyalty to the local community (see above). Coaching is another issue, Leslie Frazier was interviewed for 12 Head Coach jobs and got none of them until he wound up getting the job after Childress was fired. However the reason he was fired was a complete break down in relationship between the players and the management (bringing Favre back, the Randy Moss saga etc) that's not a situation where I would promote from within. Finally I'd argue Title Track too, but then I'm a Packer fan so I would wouldn't I.

Two of the main reasons for these rankings being as they are is the Bang for Buck and Affordablility factor.

Green Bay are top because they have both of them things on top of the fact they're current champs with a million starters on IR, they're in a small market so the tickets are cheaper than NY/Dallas/Miami etc., they're in the best shape to win again.

I would put the Packers top in all categories.


As for the Cowboys being 102, I think they're an illusion of a great team. They have a lot of talent, the stadium, the reputation. They've won 5 Super Bowls but, in the 60s they were awful and even more so in the 80s, they haven't done anything of notice outside of the early 90s.

When I take all the deciding factors in to matter the only team I'm surprised about is Jacksonville being 8th out of the NFL.

What is amazing with the Bengals is that they do this in a league that promotes parity, at least in baseball there is no salary cap and one player can be paid more than a whole team. We have managed to be consistently awful for the past twenty years and still spent a lot of money, at least rubbish baseball sides do this on a smaller budget then say the Yankees or Red Soxs.
At the moment we have our QB willing to retire rather than play for us. Resigned a head coach who had a ten game losing streak last season, and has never produced a playoff winning team.
As much as I’d like to disagree with the list i’m unable to find reason too.

It's got to be hard seeing your team listed below the Redskins, that's about as painful as sport can get.

The Bengals have a culture of losing. Mike Brown should've handed the franchise over to Zimmer and hired an experienced front office guy to make personnel decisions.