Top sports story of 2011

Butler going to back-to-back national championship games (losing its best player in the process) in a day and age when top programs tend to dominate with the one-and-done rule.

 

The girl that won the $25,000 Dr. Pepper challenge during the SEC title game stands out in my mind.

 

The Penn State revelations is clearly No. 1. No. 2 would be LeBron James and the season of the Miami Heat. No. 3 would be NBA/NFL labor strife.

 

To each their own.

 

The Legends softball game before the MLB All Star game came down to a thrilling finish, that might crack my top 6.

 

179 pages of SportsJournalists.com and counting.

 

Is this is reference to Bob? Because I got me a Bob story.

 

Since we are unfamiliar with sarcasm, I shall close the register drawer.

 

IJAG will gut you.

 

Tennis...they still play tennis?

I kid, and I am a actually a bit of a tennis fan. But I do think that plays a part. Personally, I find the Cardinals' story a bit diminished by my own growing loss of interest in MLB. But tennis is so far from its heyday, does it register enough as a sport to have ANY story in the top five?

 

I wonder if fans in St. Louis consider the Cardinals playoff run and World Series win significantly bigger as a sports story than Albert Pujols signing elsewhere...

Jim Tressel/OSU "incident" has to be on this list. It may not be as horrid a set of circumstances as the Sandusky situation at Penn State but it has a coating of sleaze on it that is not going to wash away easily. (That is not to argue that the Sandusky mess be off the list; I suggest both stories belong there.)

Someone pointed out the Butler going back-to-back in the NCAA Final Game earlier on. That has to be in the Top Five from my perspective.