Toughest trophy to win in sports

[SoxFan1]

I'm very interested in the results.

 

I have a very strong opinion on this, but I'll wait until we get some results.

[kjshoe04]

World Cup. Only comes around every 4 years. Most widely played sport in the world. It's a no brainer for me.

[iamshack]

World Cup. Only comes around every 4 years. Most widely played sport in the world. It's a no brainer for me.

The World Cup is really difficult to compare to the others though...I mean, to be honest, if we want to count any of these trophies, I'd vote for the Tour De France.

 

 

[kjshoe04]

The World Cup is really difficult to compare to the others though...I mean, to be honest, if we want to count any of these trophies, I'd vote for the Tour De France.

They are all tough to compare. Only 4 people max per year get to win a major in golf or tennis. College sports are out as it is harder to even get to the NBA than to win a college title. Baseball is probably the toughest of the 4 major sports but that is just my opinion.

[knightni]

World Series Trophy

 

The entire season is a grind and then there's the three tier playoff series on top of that.

[SoxAce]

I would say the NHL personally and I'm not even that big of a follower in hockey till the last couple of years. When you got as many upsets every year (had a 8 seed beat a 1 seed and a 2 beat a 7, 6 beat a 3, etc.. just this year) it goes to show how anything can happen in the postseason in that sport. Most of the others (NBA, MLB, NFL, Golf [if you want to call that a sport] Tennis, etc..) you actually have a good shot of predicting who will win it all before they even start playing or at least know who the final 4 guys would be.

 

NCAA is an interesting one though. Not sure I want to count college sports though with professionals (in that case college baseball is hard too) but it is up there as well for me.

Edited June 11, 2010 by SoxAce

[T R U]

College Basketball

 

That's the hardest championship to win..

[GoSox05]

Out of MLB, NHL, NBA and the NFL. I would say MLB.

 

You got one team that hasn't won it in 100 years. Two teams that went over 80 years without winning it and all three of those teams are the big franchises, not small market teams.

 

A lot of teams have never come close to winning it. I think its because of the small amount of teams that make the playoffs every year and the time it takes to rebuild a franchise.

 

 

[BigSqwert]

Out of MLB, NHL, NBA and the NFL. I would say MLB.

You got one team that hasn't won it in 100 years. Two teams that went over 80 years without winning it and all three of those teams are the big franchises, not small market teams.

 

A lot of teams have never come close to winning it. I think its because of the small amount of teams that make the playoffs every year and the time it takes to rebuild a franchise.

 

I disagree. If you spend more money than anyone else your chances of winning a title increase tremendously. The lack of a salary cap favors the top tier (in spending) franchises.

 

Just look at the titles the Yankees and Red Sox have won in the last decade.

 

Of course it was different prior to free agency.

 

BTW, I voted the World Cup. Only 7 different nations have ever won it.

[Balta1701]

I think it depends on how we define "Toughest".

 

No one is going to say that baseball players come out of the season feeling as beaten up as hockey players.

 

But the more teams there are, the "Harder" it could be to win things. Or, if you have a team like the Yankees, that can make it harder for the other teams.

 

And stuff that happens every 4 years is by definition harder to win than stuff that happens every 1 year, but aside from the guy that got that headbutt, I'd say NFL players take much more of a beating than them too.

[Balta1701]

Out of MLB, NHL, NBA and the NFL. I would say MLB.

 

You got one team that hasn't won it in 100 years. Two teams that went over 80 years without winning it and all three of those teams are the big franchises, not small market teams.

 

A lot of teams have never come close to winning it. I think its because of the small amount of teams that make the playoffs every year and the time it takes to rebuild a franchise.

Some of that too is just going to come from statistics and the fact that MLB has had more teams for longer than any of these other leagues. You can't really talk about teams with 100 year droughts in the NBA, because it hasn't been around for 100 years.

[LittleHurt05]

I voted for Lord Stanley's Cup. Besides the physical drain the playoffs take on players, there is so much randomness and luck involved in hockey. A team can outplay another for 60 minutes, but one or two unlucky bounces/rolls, and that team could easily lose. Thats why there are so many upsets in the playoffs, the best team is never guaranteed to win. s***, if the puck bounced slightly differently away from Kaner in game 5 back in April, the Hawks would have been down 3-2 headed to Nashville.

[MattZakrowski]

23 people win a world cup every 4 years. Literally billions of people play soccer. I can't imagine any league title would be tougher, but maybe an individual sport.

[HuskyCaucasian]

I havent decided one what to vote on, but I wanted to chime in on the world cup. I have a hard time voting for it because it is held every 4 years. Of COURSE it's going to be harder to win because of it's scarcity, but is it the "toughest"? I dont think so. If it was held every year (like all the other sports), more teams would have won it). It's only a "season" that lasts less than 10 games.

 

Imagine if all the other sports held their championships every 4 years.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Athomeboy_2000

[The Critic]

world series of poker

only one person wins, and just think how numb your ass must get.

[zenryan]

World Cup trophy.

 

For starters its once every 4 years meaning a player will be lucky to get 3 chances to play for it.. Plus only 7 countries have ever won the 19 events so if you arent born to one of the "elite" countries, chances are you'll never sniff it.

[danman31]

Forgetting that World Cup is every four years, I say BCS because most of the field doesn't control their destiny at the beginning of the year. We've seen teams go undefeated in a BCS conference and not even get to the title game. Besides, if you ask Brazil or Italy the World Cup is actually pretty easy to win...

[Texsox]

Great points. The randomness and all the factors off the field (computer ranking, votes), plus being played by younger athletes who also have full time jobs (going to class) outside of their sport, makes the BCS #1 to me.

[Milkman delivers]

Forgetting that World Cup is every four years, I say BCS because most of the field doesn't control their destiny at the beginning of the year. We've seen teams go undefeated in a BCS conference and not even get to the title game. Besides, if you ask Brazil or Italy the World Cup is actually pretty easy to win...

 

I was going to say something very similar.

[Milkman delivers]

Great points. The randomness and all the factors off the field (computer ranking, votes), plus being played by younger athletes who also have full time jobs (going to class) outside of their sport, makes the BCS #1 to me.

 

Ha, yeah...those basket weaving classes must be a real pain in the ass. I know I'm generalizing, as I'm sure there are a good amount of hard-working, intelligent student/athletes, but I'd be willing to bet the majority of players at D-I schools aren't having too rough a time in class.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Milkman delivers

[Jenksismyhero]

I said MLB. Too many teams, no cap, whole sport geared towards getting about four teams in the Series every year.

[kev211]

The BP crosstown cup

 

But I went with BCS national championship. Because of what was stated above, you don't control your own destiny.

[lostfan]

I disagree. If you spend more money than anyone else your chances of winning a title increase tremendously. The lack of a salary cap favors the top tier (in spending) franchises.

 

Just look at the titles the Yankees and Red Sox have won in the last decade.

 

Of course it was different prior to free agency.

 

BTW, I voted the World Cup. Only 7 different nations have ever won it.

You can also ask the GM of the Orioles, Blue Jays, and Rays (Rays' recent success notwithstanding) how easy it is being in a division with those teams that have de facto unlimited resources. It cancels out. If you're not one of the favored teams it's pretty difficult to build a strong MLB team and a farm system for sustained success without being really bad first or just being lucky. The MLB draft is a crapshoot compared to the others, the prospects take forever to develop if they ever develop at all, and sometimes your best prospects flame out for no good reason which really sets your program back. If you make the playoffs it's true that anything can happen, usually, but that's really hard to do. And if you're a player, forget it...

 

I didn't pick World Cup because it's too obvious of a choice being every 4 years. And the BCS system is kind of a joke so I didn't pick that either.

[whitesoxfan101]

1. Stanley Cup

2. World Series

3. NCAA Tournament

4. FIFA World Cup

 

I'd have the NCAA Tournament and FIFA World Cup a close 3rd and 4th, not too far behind the top 2. You could re-order #1 and #2 if you want, but I just think the physical toll of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the luck involved in hockey makes it the hardest. But the World Series is right there, it's hard just to make the playoffs in 162 games and then the playoffs there can be a lot about luck too.

[knightni]

Everyone even halfway decent has a chance to make the NBA/NHL playoffs. Not so much in MLB.