Baseball and football were almost on even footing among sports fans asked to pick their favorite by pollster Harris back in 1985 – but that’s the last time the two were very close. Here are the latest results for America’s top six sports categories.
Back in 1985 football’s lead was a scant 24%-23%. Five years later the margin had increased to 7% and in 2012 football’s result was more than double that of baseball, which although still #2 was on the wrong end of a 34%-16% margin.
College football, racing, professional basketball, college basketball and hockey are the other sports consistently pulling 5% or better in the ongoing poll.
Other sports have briefly attained that level. Men’s golf made it to 6% twice, in 1993 and 1997; men’s tennis hit 5% in 1985 and bowling hit 5% in 1989. However, no sport not included on our abridged Harris chart below did better than 2% in the 2012 survey.
RBR-TVBR used Harris’s 1985 as a benchmark, and then progressed to 1992 and pulled results for every five years. Without further ado, here they are:
| Sport | 1985 | 1992 | 1997 | 2002 | 2007 | 2012 |
| Football | 24 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 30 | 34 |
| Baseball | 23 | 21 | 17 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| College Football | 10 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 11 |
| Racing | 5 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| Pro Basketball | 6 | 8 | 13 | 11 | 4 | 7 |
| College Basketball | 6 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Hockey | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Source: Harris Interactive | ||||||
