Ranking the Best Sports Time of the Year

When the Super Bowl hoopla comes to a conclusion in two weeks, we will be reaching a bit of a dead patch in sports.

Luckily, sports is always fluid and never ending, so there will always be something going on.

It also brings up the great debate: Which is the best time of the year for sports?

Out of the 12 months of the year, there are a few times where we can hardly catch our breath due to the non-stop thrilling action.

Taking the non-biased approach as best as I can, here are the best times we get to endure every single year.

Feel free to comment and share your thoughts on when your best sports time of the year is!

Follow Dan Vasta on Twitter.

Month of October

Ah, the MLB Playoffs in October can be pretty entertaining, especially when your team is in it. 

Even the average baseball fan is pulling for Derek Jeter and the Yankees to get upset in the Divisional Playoffs or to perhaps see the Yankees win another championship.

Baseball is not the only thing going on though. The NBA season (barring this year's lockout) gets underway on Halloween night usually and the NHL is a few weeks into their own season.

And to spice things up, the NFL is nearly two months into their season and college football starts to get really juicy as well.

The BCS Standings come out in the month of October, so the water cooler talk is filled with people that just love to bash the system or talk about how they (BCS) are biased towards a specific conference or group of teams.

Anyway you look at it, the month of October is vastly underrated because of so much going on in the world of sports.

Months of May Through June

The NBA and NHL Playoffs allows their fans to sit back, relax and enjoy the best of the best.

Very often in the postseason, we see a ton of upsets (especially in NHL), so there is some backlash as to why the postseason isn't as important as the regular season (compared to college football).

Still, home court in the NBA is vital since eight of the last ten winners were home teams in Game 7's.

The months of May and June are also important for MLB since that is often the time for teams to start making (or thinking of making) some changes among the organization.

Plus, baseball is an easy sport to just turn on to relax around the house, unless of course you need to watch a sport that puts you on the edge of your seat 24/7.

Either way, to have two sports going on at once for the chance to win it all is always a thrill to watch.

Months of November Through January

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Well, at least it is darn close to being the best time of the sports year.

These three months must be combined when you realize baseball is over with and football is coming to a conclusion.

The Super Bowl is technically the first weekend of the February, although before 2002 (Rams-Pats) we always had that final weekend of January as arguably the single best day in sports.

Plus, college football's regular season comes to an end with the postseason taking the national stage.

The pageantry and excitement we see in the BCS bowls are more times than not one of the most entertaining weeks of the entire year.

New Year's Day television watching has to be on your bucket list with all the bowl games that are on all day.

The Rose Bowl or Fiesta, Sugar or Orange Bowls are spectacles since everybody gets to witness amazing players, coaches, programs and most importantly games.

Just this past season, we saw spectacular finishes or records being broken every night.

To make the debate even stronger, the NHL and NBA are going on as well.

Summer

Alright, so the summer is pretty amazing. The weather is gorgeous and it is the time where relaxation, family, friends, vacations and sports all combine.

Is there anything better in life?

A lot of the debate really depends on how much of a die-hard sports fan you are.

Do you sleep, eat and drink it all in 24/7/365?

Baseball takes over the national landscape with the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game. Having been to both electrifying events, it is worth the hype and then some.

To see the best players in the world all in one spectacle is a site to see, but MLB is not the only thing going on.

The NFL and college football seasons start to really heat up, as every team starts out undefeated. So, this gives hope to even the fans of the worst franchises in the world.

The true debate lies on the years that the Olympics are going on. The Olympics (London 2012 Olympic Summer Games, 7/27-8/12) are always popular as it is must-see TV (more times than not) every time.

So, is this the best time of the sports season?

Month of March Through First Week of April

Let us debate the best sports time of the year!

The NCAA Tournament more times than not is where you see your bosses cut you some slack since they are the ones putting you in charge of running friendly wagers.

All of those friendly bracket pools that everybody gets into are more addictive than sports itself.

This is the time where you hear about that one clueless male or female who picked the No.11-seed  George Mason Patriots to reach the Final Four over your top-seeded Connecticut Huskies (2006).

The NCAA Tournament is all about giving that "Cinderella" team a chance to put on the glass slipper and perhaps shine brighter than ever before.

Plus, being able to watch games throughout the entire day is pretty much heaven.

Filling out a bracket is pretty much a law these days, and tearing your sheet apart after the first weekend is often comical, sad and at the same time enjoyable to witness.

Throw in the opening day of MLB on top of the Masters and you have yourself three platefuls of entertainment. 

This has to be considered the best time of the year because of what it leads us all into.

Before you know it, the NFL Draft is coming up and summer is right around the corner, where we hope to re-live future magical moments over and over again.

Follow Dan Vasta on Twitter.