Parity in Sports

I don't really follow the NBA anymore (too much bad behaviour for me to enjoy watching it for years now) but across the other big three North American professional sports leagues, it seems like parity has become the order of the day. In Major League Baseball this past season, there was a long stretch in the latter half of the season where the wildcard race in the National League was headed up by teams only two or three games over .500. That's an obvious indicator of parity, since it means there are a lot of teams hovering around the breakeven point in terms of wins vs losses, and if they were lucky enough to be in the NL, they were in the playoff hunt right up until the last couple weeks. The American League wildcard race was more like what you'd expect, featuring a trio of teams that had double digits more wins than losses (Detroit, Minnesota, Chicago).

In the NHL right now, there are a handful of teams way out in front (Buffalo, Atlanta, Anaheim and Nashville) and maybe one team well behind the early playoff pace (Columbus) but the vast majority are packed in the middle. And even that list of four top dogs are far from the usual suspects, which would typically be Ottawa, New Jersey, Detroit and maybe Calgary or Philadelphia. It certainly makes things more interesting for fans everywhere when you have a big mash-up scenario like this, rather than a Great Divide between Haves and Have Nots, as had been the case in years prior to the lockout of 2004/2005. If my Rangers had traditionally been one of those upper tier NHL teams, I'm sure I'd be less pleased with this turn of events; but after seven consecutive seasons with no playoff appearances, last year was a breath of fresh air for me, even considering their self-destruction at the end of the year.

And finally, as I glance at the NFL standings today (despite not really following the league much so far this year, in protest over the hated Steelers winning last year) I see some of the same thing happening there. Both the NFC and AFC are filled with teams sporting records like 6-5 and 5-6 right now, with a very few managing to hold 9-2, 8-3 or even 7-4 marks. This probably means there'll be at least one division winner get into the postseason with a 9-7 record, and maybe even a wildcard team or two with that record as well. Again, this says "parity" to me. I guess the fact that the NFC sent two wildcard teams with 8-8 records to the playoffs a couple years ago means this isn't anything completely new. But seeing Baltimore, Chicago and San Diego atop the overall standings once again indicates that the sport's not mired in a rut where the same teams dominate year to year. And that's gotta be good for fans, in general.

I think as fans of particular teams we sometimes forget that the whole point of the product is to get butts into the seats of the arenas and stadiums, sell TV time, and move merchandise. And the more chance each team has to win it all, even two thirds of the way through the long season, the better it is for everyone.