Which term is more correct when listing the season? Example 1995-96 Bulls

[seminoles1]

Having a discussion in NFL General where one poster was saying the 1994 Rockets, but means the season that started in 1994 and ended in 1995 with their title after trading for Drexler.  He says it should be considered the 1994 Rockets and not the 1995 Rockets, but I think he's incorrect and he wants proof.  I've only ever seen it where the year the Finals are played.

[TitanSlim]

Like you said, with basketball(college and pros) I always go with the year the season ends. I thought it was common knowledge.

[RandyMossIsBoss]

I've always gone, and most seem to as well:

Basketball- year season ends. So 1996 Bulls refers to the 1995-96 Bulls, not the 1996-97 Bulls. 

Football- year season begins. Pretty universal since generally only the postseason, maybe 1 regular season game, take place in the next calendar year. Confusion comes into play more with conference championships, like when I say the 2015 NFC championship, I am referring to the Panthers vs Cardinals (which took place Jan 2016), not the Seahawks vs Packers (which took place Jan 2015). I do that since I view it as the NFC championship game of the 2015 NFL season. I remember the Broncos as the 2015 champions, even though they  won in 2016, etc.

[tom cody]

Most of the season was played in 1996 so I'd call them the 1996 Bulls. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

On 1/26/2019 at 1:15 PM, seminoles1 said:

Having a discussion in NFL General where one poster was saying the 1994 Rockets, but means the season that started in 1994 and ended in 1995 with their title after trading for Drexler.  He says it should be considered the 1994 Rockets and not the 1995 Rockets, but I think he's incorrect and he wants proof.  I've only ever seen it where the year the Finals are played.

It's funny, we look at it differently for the NFL and NBA. To me, they would be considered the 96 champs. In the NFL, the Patriots/Rams winner will be known as the 2018 champs. 

[beekay414]

It's pretty common knowledge that it's the '96 Bulls haha. 

[MikeT14]

Baseball and Football are the year they started in (in baseball's case, it only encompasses that year). NHL and NBA are the year it finishes in. I too thought this was common knowledge. 

[Danger]

15 hours ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

It's funny, we look at it differently for the NFL and NBA. To me, they would be considered the 96 champs. In the NFL, the Patriots/Rams winner will be known as the 2018 champs. 

Agree. Rationale is:

Basically the entirety of the regular season in the NFL is played in the earlier calendar year. So the post season is a followup to that year's season.

Whereas in the NBA, the majority of the season takes place in the 2nd calendar year and the post season also occurs then, so I go with that.


In short, I guess it has to do with what percentage of the cumulative season is played in which year.

[seminoles1]

3 hours ago, MikeT14 said:

Baseball and Football are the year they started in (in baseball's case, it only encompasses that year). NHL and NBA are the year it finishes in. I too thought this was common knowledge. 

So did I, but @ET80 said he had never seen it this way and I thought that was really strange because I'd only ever seen it the other way.

*Not trying to call you out ET! Just didn't know if you saw this thread when I posted it in the NFL Gen topic.

[OkeyDoke21]

Football creates more gray area than Basketball does, because of where the majority of the season is played.  I use the year they started, for football, but the year that the superbowl occurred, when talking about them.  The 2000 Ravens won the 2001 Superbowl, for example.  The 2018 Superbowl champions are the Philadelphia Eagles.  Basketball doesn't have that same problem.  It's pretty universally called by the year the season ends.  Only 2 months of the season are played in the previous year.