The Year Ahead in Sports

January

1/1 The Iowa Hawkeyes and the Stanford Cardinal go head-to-head in the 102nd Rose Bowl 1/1 The Boston Bruins face off outdoors against the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL’s Winter Classic 1/11 College Football National Championship 1/18 Grand Slam season begins for tennis at the Australian Open 1/31 NFL All-Stars visit Honolulu for the Pro Bowl

February

2/7 Super Bowl 50 2/14 Pro basketball heads to Toronto for the NBA All-Star Game 2/21 NASCAR revs its engines at the Daytona 500 2/24 The X Games descend on Oslo

March

3/13 The green flag waves for the IndyCar Series season 3/13 The NCAA’s Selection Sunday seeds 68 men’s basketball teams for March Madness 3/18 The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament tips off 3/28 Competitors meet at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Boston

April

4/2 The road to the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four ends in Houston 4/3 Opening Day of the MLB season 4/7 Golf’s major season tees off with the Masters Tournament 4/9 College ice hockey’s Frozen Four concludes 4/9 The NHL regular season ends 4/18 Thousands of runners participate in the 120th Boston Marathon 4/28 The NFL drafts its newest players

May

5/7 Horse-racing fans put on their finest for the Kentucky Derby 5/22 Red clay flies at Roland Garros for the French Open 5/29 The year’s most famous car race takes place at the Brickyard of the Indianapolis 500

June

6/2 The Women’s College World Series for softball returns to Oklahoma City 6/10 Soccer’s UEFA European Championship kicks off 6/23 NBA Draft 6/27 Pop the champagne: Wimbledon is back

July

7/2 The Tour de France pedals off 7/4 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest 7/9 The UFC 200 in Las Vegas is likely a Ronda Rousey–Holly Holm rematch 7/12 Baseball’s best head to San Diego for the All-Star Game

August

8/5 Athletes compete for gold at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro 8/29 Tennis’ U.S. Open begins

September

9/8 The NFL season kicks off 9/30 Europe’s best golfers take on America’s finest in the Ryder Cup

October

10/2 MLB teams play their final regular-season games 10/23 Formula One’s United States Grand Prix revs through Austin

November

11/6 New York City Marathon 11/24 The Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys play in the NFL’s traditional Thanksgiving Day games

December

12/6 Competitors race at the FINA World Swimming Championships 12/31 College football’s Peach Bowl and Fiesta Bowl

Compiled by Megan McCluskey