If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.
For full coverage of all the NHL and NBA games, see our NHL forecast and NBA forecast.
Download a full-size copy here.
Monday: How could you celebrate Presidents’ day without watching some sports? After all, a lot of them have been athletes themselves. Have a late lunch and watch some hockey and then get ready to get your women’s sports on. Admittedly, the U.S. soccer game is more likely to be 10-0 than it is 1-0, but it’s still a good excuse for a party.
Tuesday: The Champions League is back! It’s generally thought of as the best club soccer tournament in the world. Today’s highest profile match is Chelsea vs. Paris SG. Chelsea is having a nightmare of a domestic season but this is a chance for them to shine on another stage. The rest of the day gives us excellent games in hockey and men’s college basketball.
Wednesday: See Tuesday. Same sports, same excellent games. If sports weren’t ideal reality television, this might get boring. As it is, it’s just more fun.
Thursday: Did I fool you by stretching out the events on the calendar? See all that orange and grey space? There aren’t as many events in the sports world today as there are some other days, but what there is is good. It’s been years since the Penguins and Red Wings played in two straight Stanley Cup Finals but you can bet the teams and there fans haven’t forgotten. In the NBA, the Cavs and Bulls almost always play contentious games and no one likes the Clippers except for Clippers fans.
Friday: Date night! Although the finals of the Women’s Olympic soccer qualifying tournament in CONCACAF, the Central American, North American, and Caribbean region, are on Sunday, because the top two teams qualify, it’s tonight’s games that actually matter. The United States would have to suffer an incredible disaster not to qualify but the other slot is more interesting. Canada will face either Mexico or Costa Rica, either of which could create an upset.
Saturday: March Madness is looming. Scout six top 25 men’s teams today and get a leg up on your company’s bracket competition.
Sunday: As we explained in Friday’s update, the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying final tonight is close to an exhibition, because both teams will get to go to Rio. Still, if it’s between the U.S. and Canada, it should be lots of fun. Canada is perennially trying to catch up to the U.S. in women’s soccer and they’re not afraid to throw some elbows to get there. The biggest profile event of the day by far is the famous Daytona 500. If you want to get a feel for NASCAR, this is the race to tune into.
Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.