Cross-Sport Champion: The winners
The Capital One Cup has been given out for nine years. There is one for men’s sports and one for women’s sports, which means there have been 18 awarded. That means we have a decent sample of a leaderboard:
1. Stanford Cardinal, 8 (6 women, 2 men)
2. Florida Gators, 3 (1 women, 2 men)
3. Virginia Cavaliers, 2 (2 men)
T4. UCLA Bruins men, Notre Dame Fighting Irish men, Ohio State Buckeyes men, North Carolina Tar Heels women, USC Trojans women, 1 each
Obviously, college sports and pro sports are different beasts, but there’s a pretty clear top dog there, and then some repeaters. If we were ever to adopt the Cross-Sport Champion that I’m touting here, I think we’d end up similarly. The Boston hub — the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins — have been good for a while, while the Detroit hub — the Lions, Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings — have been, um, less good. Some would obviously bounce around a la Notre Dame or USC, but other groups would hover in a range over a generation or more.
What I’m saying is, the Cross-Sport Championship would be so fun, would create new rivalries, and would generate all new (for fun) controversies, and we should definitely have it.
All this week, I’ve been counting down the 30 hubs by combined records over the last full regular seasons (with some extra credit for playoff success). Check out the Intro, Hubs 25-30, Hubs 19-24, Hubs 13-18, and Hubs 7-12. Now, let’s count down the top six.
6. White House Down (Washington combined result: 0.685)
Washington football team: 3-13
Washington Nationals: 93-69
Washington Wizards: 32-50
Washington Capitals: 48-34
Bonus awarded: 0.16 for Nationals’ championship; 0.01 for Capitals’ playoff appearance
Here we see the sheer value of a championship. The football team was awful, the Wizards weren’t much. But the 0.16-point bonus for the World Series champion in the Nationals’ clubhouse almost single-handedly carried the hub from “that’s fine” to the top six.
5. Apollo 13 (Houston combined result: 0.702)
Houston Texans: 10-6
Houston Astros: 107-55
Houston Rockets: 53-29
Ottawa Senators: 29-53
Bonus awarded: 0.02 for Texans’ second-round playoff loss; 0.08 for Astros’ championship loss; 0.02 for Rockets’ second-round playoff loss
On raw winning percentage, with no playoff bonus, the Houston hub would actually be third overall. But both the Texans and the Rockets only had so-so playoff runs, while the Astros losing in the World Series held them back a bit as well (a World Series title would have carried Houston to No. 1, actually). And then of course, the Senators were garbage, but it’s hard to go 4-for-4.
4. Canadian Bacon (Toronto combined result: 0.709)
Buffalo Bills: 10-6
Toronto Blue Jays: 67-95
Toronto Raptors: 58-24
Toronto Maple Leafs: 46-36
Bonus awarded: 0.01 for Bills’ playoff appearance; 0.16 for Raptors’ championship; 0.01 for Maple Leafs’ playoff appearance
The Blue Jays were the ones holding this group back. Otherwise, this was a universally strong hub that could have done with a little more playoff success … and I say that despite the fact that one of the hub members actually won a title. The Bills and Maple Leafs were above-average teams who both lost in their first playoff rounds; without the Raptors it’s just an average group.
3. Mr. 3000 (Milwaukee combined result: 0.720)
Green Bay Packers: 13-3
Milwaukee Brewers: 89-73
Milwaukee Bucks: 60-22
Calgary Flames: 50-32
Bonus awarded: 0.04 for Packers’ third-round playoff loss; 0.01 for Brewers’ playoff appearance; 0.04 for Bucks’ third-round playoff loss; 0.01 for Flames’ playoff appearance
Somewhat surprisingly (to me at least), there was only one hub that had all four entrants make the playoffs in the last season, and at that two of the teams went out in the first round. But with none of the teams even making it to the championship round, the Milwaukee hub didn’t get the bump you’d expect from having four playoff teams. In other words, the only hub to have four playoff team had (unsurprisingly) the best overall pre-bonus record, but a lack of deep playoff runs meant that it only came in third in the endgame results.
2. A Streetcar Named Desire (New Orleans combined result: 0.742)
New Orleans Saints: 13-3
St. Louis Cardinals: 91-71
New Orleans Pelicans: 33-49
St. Louis Blues: 45-37
Bonus awarded: 0.01 for Saints’ playoff appearance; 0.04 for Cardinals’ third-round playoff loss; 0.16 for Blues’ championship
This group:
Had one of the best few NFL teams
Had a sneaky semifinalist in baseball
Had the Stanley Cup champion
Had its one bad team end up with Zion Williamson
In other words, sure, the New Orleans/St. Louis hub doesn’t finish first in our little exercise, but you can definitely argue that it ended up with the happiest combined season, even without the crown.
1. Mrs. Doubtfire (San Francisco combined result: 0.764)
San Francisco 49ers: 13-3
San Francisco Giants: 77-85
Golden State Warriors: 57-25
San Jose Sharks: 46-36
Bonus awarded: 0.08 for 49ers’ championship loss; 0.08 for Warriors’ championship loss; 0.04 for Sharks’ third-round playoff loss
I enjoy that the ultimate Cross-Sport Champion from the last season didn’t actually win a title in any of the four sports. So in the end it’s basically adding a fifth championship to the four sports, and we end the 2018-2019-2020 (stupid virus making years hard to describe) pro sports seasons with a football champion in Kansas City, a baseball champion in Washington, a basketball champion in Toronto, a hockey champion in St. Louis, and an overall champion in San Francisco. Maybe that’s inelegant to you; to me it makes the whole thing that much more fun.