Top 5 Sports Franchises

[Radii]

Originally posted by MrBug708
UCLA isn't near the Top 15 in terms of football, but is probably Top 5 for BB and near the bottom for baseball

However, taking about franchises, UCLA A.D. is probably the most prestigious job in the nation due to the fact that all of UCLA's NC's game from the 40's on and they've won a ridiculous total of about 60ish under now retired A.D. Peter Dalis

The post I was responding to was specifically about college basketball. I don't know enough about all sport championships combined to speak to that. I do know, since they started doing that Sears Directors Cup award what, 10-15 years ago? That Stanford has won the thing almost every year. But for long term history of an entire college athletics program, I have no idea.

[rexalllsc]

Originally posted by Vince
As much as I dislike them, Duke basketball deserves to be somewhere up there. In terms of longevity, I'm not sure what they were like back in the day, but they've been ridiculously consistent the last decade or so.

Nah, they only have 3 titles. Ucla, Kentucky, and Indiana are the class of college ball, IMO.

[rexalllsc]

Originally posted by Radii
I think, in terms of over the past century, Duke is in the top 10 in college basketball. The top 3 would most likely be undisputed, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, not necessarily in that order. UCLA stakes its amazing championship run claim but has nothing on these 3 in terms of consistant excellence over a long period of time. Indiana is probably ahead of Duke too on the list as well.

Come on now! Kansas only has 2 titles...which is the same amount as NC State, Oklahoma State, Cincinnati, and San Francisco. They're hardly elite.

Ucla has more titles than Indiana (5), Duke(3), and Kansas (2) combined!

Ucla also holds the record for longest winning streak (88 games), etc...

[ColtCrazy]

Considering Manchester Utd. has an estamated worth of a billion dollars, I'd say they'd have to make it, so...

Manchester Utd.
Yankees (Who, interestingly enough, have a marketing deal with Man. Utd)
Cowboys
Lakers
Real Madrid
close 6th, GB Packers

[AgPete]

MLB - New York Yankees
NBA - Los Angeles Lakers
NFL - Dallas Cowboys
NHL - Montreal Canadians
NCAA Football - Notre Dame
NCAA Basketball - UCLA

The rest are all pretenders.

But props to the St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Boston Celtics, Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers and New York Giants. I don't watch enough hockey to really know who the dynasties are other than the Montreal Canadians but the N.Y. Rangers sure do get a lot of attention even when they're losing.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally posted by ColtCrazy
Considering Manchester Utd. has an estamated worth of a billion dollars, I'd say they'd have to make it, so...

Manchester Utd.
Yankees (Who, interestingly enough, have a marketing deal with Man. Utd)
Cowboys
Lakers
Real Madrid
close 6th, GB Packers

Well, if you're using monetary value as a measuring stick, the top 4 would be:

Manchester United
Washington Redskins
New York Yankees
Dallas Cowboys

I couldn't find enough data to come up with a compelling #5.. but odds are, it's another NFL team... probably a good one with a brand-new, team-owned ballpark

[Marmel]

Kansas is a good example of a program that is more than winning championships. Just having Naismith and Phog Allen as 2 of their coaches, for me, puts them in the elite class of college basketball programs.

[tucker342]

MLB - New York Yankees
NBA - Boston Celtics
NFL - San Fransico 49ers
NHL - Montreal Canadians
NCAA Football - I hate to say it but, Notre Dame
NCAA Basketball - UCLA

[korme]

Lakers -- every decade new stars come and go
Yankees -- same^^
49ers
Cowboys
Celtics -- getting back on track, too

[cthomer5000]

so baseball is unanimous (Yankees) and basketball is a clear-cut battle between the Lakers and Celtics.

What football and hockey teams can we seriously consider?

[Karim]

Hockey is a toss up between:

1. Canadiens - most cups, no prolonged consecutive losing seasons, history unmatched, tough times recently

2. Maple Leafs - 2nd most cups, among best fan support of any team anywhere, no cup since '67

3. Red Wings - prior to the 90s, would they even be considered?

4. Bruins - some good players and a few cups but a long-time lack of committment to winning

5. Black Hawks - same story here

6. Rangers - yeah, right

[Karim]

Dola...

Football: San Francisco 49ers
Baseball: New York Yankees
Basketball: Los Angeles Lakers
Hockey: Montreal Canadiens
Soccer: Real Madrid

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by Karim
Hockey is a toss up between:

1. Canadiens - most cups, no prolonged consecutive losing seasons, history unmatched, tough times recently

2. Maple Leafs - 2nd most cups, among best fan support of any team anywhere, no cup since '67

3. Red Wings - prior to the 90s, would they even be considered?

4. Bruins - some good players and a few cups but a long-time lack of committment to winning

5. Black Hawks - same story here

6. Rangers - yeah, right

I do feel compelled to defend the Blackhawks. They made the playoffs 28 straight years ending in, I think it was 1997. That's long term winning. It's just the past couple of years, they have had management as bad as the Bengals and Clippers.

SI

[Alan T]

Originally posted by sterlingice
they have had management as bad as the Bengals and Clippers.

I dont think either the Clippers or Bengals would be listed in a top franchise thread either. At one point in my life, the Bengals were a pretty decent franchise but their demise has only been recent (past 10 years).

With that said though, there seems to me to be a clear line drawn between some of the original hockey teams and most of the newcomers. I can not think of any modern hockey team that has close to the prestige of a franchise such as the Canadians, Leafs, Red Wings, Blackhawks, Bruins. Maybe that is just my slanted perspective though..

[QuikSand]

Seems that it's tough to decide how much to weigh the recent past versus the long-passed past. (Ugh)

Nobody has mentioned the Chicago Bears. I know that their great years were back during black and white television (if that) but if we're going to give credit for all the Canadiens' titles going back decades, and we're implicitly doing the same for the Yankees of the 20s and 40s... don't we need to lend some weight to the great Bears teams under Halas, which were a great institution? I realize that they have had more downs than ups in our lifetimes... but that's quite a storied franchise as well.

[Alan T]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Seems that it's tough to decide how much to weigh the recent past versus the long-passed past. (Ugh)

I base it on if I can remember it or remember hearing about it growing up. I know that then makes it subjective based on age of people, but any topic like this leads to subjective discussions which are the fun of the entire topic in the first place

For football, growing up I remember the great Raiders, Vikings, Cowboys and Steeler teams.. then you had great 49ers, cowboy teams leading to a few good Giants teams, then in the 90s great cowboys and packer and more great 49er teams.

Unfortunatly now in football, we might have seen the last great franchise. With the salary cap, there is alot of turnover year to year. The reason I picked the cowboys was as long as I can remember they were an elite team. All teams have down years, but from my earliest football watching days, they were the team we hated.