The Win Column: How you ranked Atlanta’s sports teams

By my count, Saturday’s SEC championship game will mark the sixth time Georgia has played either Alabama or Texas over the last two seasons. That’s roughly 22% of the Bulldogs’ games.

More on that particular version of Groundhog Day momentarily. We’ve also cooked up a (nonfootball) ticket giveaway you won’t want to miss.

But first: Poll results!

FROM FIRST TO WORST

Two weeks ago, I asked y’all to fill out a form ranking your “confidence in the direction of” Atlanta’s five professional sports franchises.

More than 300 of you did — and now it’s time for the big reveal.

So I present to you, ladies and gentlefolk, the results of the Win Column’s inaugural Atlanta Sports Vibe-O-Meter.

1️⃣ The Braves: 3.83 trophies

Perfect? Nah. But y’all (correctly) deemed the local baseball team the city’s most confidence-worthy franchise. About 69% of voters gave the Bravos a four or five.

Keeping those vibes up, of course, depends on players staying healthy and plenty of offseason additions.

2️⃣ The Hawks: 3.26 trophies

This voter put things best: “Hawks are getting wins without Trae Young. Players are stepping up to the expectations and not rolling over and playing dead when the team gets behind. And playing defense. When is the last time you could say that?”

Also, Jalen Johnson remains awesome.

3️⃣ The Dream: 3.16 trophies

Surprisingly limited love for a team coming off its winningest season ever, with stars all around. We’ll chalk it up to that first-round playoff exit.

4️⃣ Atlanta United: 2.33 trophies

Will rehiring Tata Martino and diving even deeper into getting the 2018 band back together, you know, work? No idea.

But after the literal worst season in franchise history, the Five Stripes should just feel lucky they’re not in last.

5️⃣ The Falcons: 1.47 trophies

What? You don’t like seven (soon to be eight) straight losing seasons, questionable hires, questionable coaching and a big shiny building that’s never hosted a playoff game?

Like the other Arthur Blank-owned franchise in town, the Falcons are floundering — so much so that of the 145 folks to fill in the survey’s write-in option, exactly half mentioned them.

A quick selection of some of my favorite comments, Falcons and otherwise:

• “Who cares about the price of hot dogs (at Mercedes-Benz Stadium) when watching the games makes you want to barf?”
• “The Falcons will not be a serious organization until the entire front office is replaced (including Rich McKay) and/or Arthur Blank sells the team.”
• “Braves are ‘always a bridesmaid’ but Falcons are ‘never a bridesmaid.’”
• “Atlanta Dream is the city’s team! From the way they uplift the community to their unmatched energy and style, this is the team to get behind.”
• “The next professional sports championship parade we will see is for the NHL team that doesn’t exist yet. Nobody else is even close.”

Yeesh. If hockey really is our only hope, this city is doomed.

➡️ What else do y’all want to vote on? Shoot me some ideas.

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK (PLUS, COOL GIVEAWAYS)

There’s a lot going on, y’all. Here’s some of non-SEC championship stuff.

🏀 The Hawks host the Clippers (who just dispatched Chris Paul?) at 7:30 tonight. It’s also “Outkast Night,” meaning the first 5,000 folks get an “exclusive figurine set of the iconic duo.”

⚽ The World Cup draw is when FIFA sorts the 48 competing teams into groups for next summer’s tournament. That starts at noon Friday (official watch party at Fado in Buckhead, if you’re into that kind of thing).

(While we won’t find out which squads will play in Atlanta until Saturday, we do know the U.S. men will host Belgium and Portugal in pre-Cup warmup matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium)

🎾 The inaugural Atlanta Cup brings tennis stars Aryna Sabalenka, Naomi Osaka, Nick Kyrgios and Ben Shelton (an Atlanta native) to Gwinnett’s Gas South Arena for a Saturday exhibition event. Per the organizers, it’ll be the first time the women’s world No. 1 (Sabalenka) will play in the Atlanta area since 1997.

Wanna go? We’re giving one AJC subscriber two free tickets, so don’t miss your shot: ENTER HERE.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to GA residents, 18+, who are active, paid AJC subscribers as of the time this newsletter is distributed. Enter by 12:00 p.m. ET on 12/04/25. Limit 1 entry per person. Prize: Two (2) tickets to The Atlanta Cup on 12/06/25 (ARV $198; parking not included). Odds vary. Sponsor: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. See Official Rules.

🏈 The Falcons host the 9-3 Seahawks at 1 p.m. Sunday. Huzzah.

⚾ Braves great Dale Murphy may(?) finally get into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. The Contemporary Era Committee meets Sunday to choose from Murph and seven other candidates, with results announced at 7:30 p.m. on MLB Network.

MAPPING OUT THE HIGH SCHOOL PLAYOFFS

Gainesville’s … fighting Red Elephants are back in the playoff action Friday, two weeks after their on-field brawl with Brunswick and one week after they were originally supposed to play Langston Hughes (columnist Ken Sugiura has thoughts). The other Class 5A matchup is on hold so they can line back up.

But other than that: It’s semifinals all around, baby — and we thought it’d be fun to map out where the teams in each classification are from.

Temporarily tossing out the Gainesville ordeal and using very loose geographical definitions, we’re looking at ...

• 11 teams from metro Atlanta.
• Eight teams from non-metro North Georgia.
• and seven teams from Middle or South Georgia.

... who remain alive in the title hunt.

🔎 Here’s everything else you need to know about the action in Classes 6A, 5A, 4A and 3A. Check back at AJC.com/varsity for the other classifications soon.

AN SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SONNET

With apologies to my favorite high school English teacher, Ms. Skinner, here’s a sonnet (Bill Shakespeare’s favorite kind of 14-line poem) about Georgia playing Alabama again in the SEC championship game.

(I mostly gave up on the “iambic pentameter” thing, but close enough.)

The lesson?