Toughest trophy to win in sports

[Cowch]

I'm unsure as to why NCAA Basketball Tournament does not have more votes.. Like was stated before, you literally have zero room for error. Every other option either occurs more often (tennis and golf tournaments) or allows for more than zero losses/ties.

[kjshoe04]

I'm shocked the Stanley cup has got so many votes. To me it seems like the easiest. It is by far the least popular sport so not as much competition, plus a ton of teams make the playoffs and any team can win in the playoffs so you don't have to build a great team to have a chance.

[LittleHurt05]

I'm shocked the Stanley cup has got so many votes. To me it seems like the easiest. It is by far the least popular sport so not as much competition, plus a ton of teams make the playoffs and any team can win in the playoffs so you don't have to build a great team to have a chance.

 

What does the popularity have anything to do with how much competition there is? You are still facing the highest level of skill in that sport.

 

The fact that any team can win it makes it that much tougher. In basketball, the team with the most talent nearly almost wins. In hockey, you can face some unlucky bounces of the puck or face a hot goalie and your talented team is done. Not to mention, the physical grind that 20-25 playoff games of non-stop hitting and physical play takes on your body as well.

[BearSox]

I gotta go with the BCS National Championship Trophy, mainly because there are 120 FBS schools, yet only about a 1/10 of those schools has any snowballs chance in hell to even sniff the championship.

 

But honestly though, its not that tough for the most talented team to win it, they usually do (Florida, Alabama). It's just the only a fraction of the teams have any chance of even making it to a BCS bowl. Thus, making it the toughest trophy to win. Look at Boise St., its virtually impossible for them to get a shot at it, and all they do is dominate.

[kjshoe04]

What does the popularity have anything to do with how much competition there is? You are still facing the highest level of skill in that sport.

 

The fact that any team can win it makes it that much tougher. In basketball, the team with the most talent nearly almost wins. In hockey, you can face some unlucky bounces of the puck or face a hot goalie and your talented team is done. Not to mention, the physical grind that 20-25 playoff games of non-stop hitting and physical play takes on your body as well.

Less people in the world play the sport, therefore the skill level is probably down compared to soccer and basketball which have the best athletes due to the popularity around the world of those two sports. The percentage of people that have played hockey and won a championship is way higher than the percentage of people that have played basketball and won a championship. I don't think physicality has anything to do with how "hard" it is to win a championship but thats just the way I look at the question.

[LittleHurt05]

Less people in the world play the sport, therefore the skill level is probably down compared to soccer and basketball which have the best athletes due to the popularity around the world of those two sports. The percentage of people that have played hockey and won a championship is way higher than the percentage of people that have played basketball and won a championship. I don't think physicality has anything to do with how "hard" it is to win a championship but thats just the way I look at the question.

 

If you look at the question that way, then the World Cup is the only answer. More people in the world play soccer than any other sport and nothing else can even compare. That doesn't even take into account that it is only every 4 years.

 

Reading this thread, its obvious that everyone reads the question differently, so its hard to actually agree on a consensus answer.

Edited June 26, 2010 by LittleHurt05

[IlliniKrush]

Hockey is one of the toughest if not the toughest because of the physical toll it takes on you, it's more demanding than any of the other competitions IMO. Up to 28 games of physical, injury-ridden hockey. The effort given and toll taken outweighs much of these other ones by miles. I don't really care so much about what the math says, number of teams in number of sport. If you want to simplify it that much there's no argument, just plug in the numbers I guess. But I didn't take this question as a probability question.

[SuperSteve]

I voted for the World Cup mainly because two factors. It only happens once every four years (I know it's been discussed prior in this thread) and thus there are four Stanley Cups, Lombardi Throphies, et cetera for each WC. Also, players only have a limited number of WCs in them, you might have a star (see Drogba) but if you have a bad draw twice, you could never even make it out of the group stages and then you're too old.

 

The other factor there really isn't a ton of parity in soccer when it comes to serious contenders. Yes, someone outside the usual suspects might make it to the semifinals, but in the end, one of the powers will win the title. The Blackhawks are a good example, think back four years when they couldn't make the playoffs. Now compare that to Honduras who failed to make the WC four years ago. Now, the Hawks went and won the Stanley Cup however Honduras had less than a 1% chance to win the WC (and obviously didn't).

 

Just my opinion.

[Nyx81]

does the triple crown count? Last one was in 1978. Really, I think their all tough.

[southsider2k5]

You could throw in the gold metal in olympic sports if you wanted to use the four year thing as a barometer. I think that would make the basketball gold the toughest of all, because the fewest countries have won it.

[Balta1701]

You could throw in the gold metal in olympic sports if you wanted to use the four year thing as a barometer. I think that would make the basketball gold the toughest of all, because the fewest countries have won it.

All you have to do is invent the sport and breed Michael Jordans.

[SuperSteve]

You could throw in the gold metal in olympic sports if you wanted to use the four year thing as a barometer. I think that would make the basketball gold the toughest of all, because the fewest countries have won it.

I thought about gold medals but I couldn't find a team sport that was as hard to win as the WC. In basketball, the USA is just too dominant (sans one tournament).

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

The BP Cup.

[AJUribe]

out of the four major sports the lombardi trophy is the hardest to win. As opposed to the other three sports there is no series and in one game virtually anything can happen, you can dominate the entire season and have a bad game or one costly mistake (see Favre) and your done.

[Controlled Chaos]

out of the four major sports the lombardi trophy is the hardest to win. As opposed to the other three sports there is no series and in one game virtually anything can happen, you can dominate the entire season and have a bad game or one costly mistake (see Favre) and your done.

I think that makes it the easiest to win. In football you have to beat a team 4 times to win the Lombardi. In hockey, at a minimum, you have to play 16 games to win it all. I mean the Hawks this year played more games just in the playoffs then the Bears would play in a championship winning season ...with the same amount of brutal hits and about 6 days less to recover from them. The NHL regular season ended on April 11 and the Hawks won the Stanley Cup on June 9 after playing their 22nd playoff game.

 

I guess the answer depends on how you interpret the question...but I define 'toughest' or 'hardest' by including the sports physical factors. Along with certain degrees of physicality comes injuries and that takes it's toll on winning. A non contact sport has to take some sort of hit for that and for me...that hit puts baseball below hockey, but not below football. While football is physical, it's a cake walk of a season and playoff format. Win your conference and you have a tough week of rest with a bye, followed by two home games over 14 days, and another 2 weeks of rest and the Superbowl.

[typewritermender]

I voted "other." EUFA Champions League. All of the best soccer clubs from the best soccer countries in the best soccer continent competing for one title. And Champions League means EVERYTHING to European clubs. Most people would rather win that than their domestic league. Plus it's incredibly awesome to watch. The talent & level of play is out of control.