Seeking a better sports city? Look (cough) north.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

The past 12 months have not been the best for University of Oregon sports fans. The football team had its first losing season in a decade last fall. The men's basketball team's high hopes for its freshman class ended with a 14-13 record this winter. Yes, the women's basketball team did make it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and the men's track and field team won the Pac-10 crown after a spring of controversy ushered out the era of head coach Martin Smith.

But is Eugene really Track Town USA anymore? Is Eugene even any sort of sports town at all anymore? Of course it is, depending on whom you ask. Depending on perspective.

All we know is this: According to this week's issue of The Sporting News magazine and its annual ranking of Best Sports Cities, Corvallis is more of a "sports town" than Eugene.

The city 40 miles north of here that is home to Beaver Nation is listed at No. 66, and Eugene is listed at No. 83 in the ranking of 388 North American cities.

If that isn't enough to ruffle the feathers of any Duck fan - get this: Eugene ranks eighth out of the nine Pac-10 cities. Eighth! That's worse than the Ducks did in football last year, their first losing season in a decade, when they finished tied for fifth in the Pac-10.

"You've got to admit, 50-21 says a lot," says Kelly McIver, a Eugene School District spokesman and a rabid Duck fan who graduated from the UO in 1990. McIver was referring to the score of the Civil War football game in Corvallis last November, when the Beavers knocked the stuffing out of the Ducks.

That leads us to the criteria that The Sporting News, based in St. Louis, uses to do its annual rankings. It's based on the past 12 months, from July to July, and a heavy premium is put on regular-season records, playoff berths, bowl appearances and tournament bids of a city's major sports teams. So, yes, given that, it is a no-brainer. The Beavers had a winning football season last fall that led to a bowl game, and their baseball team had its best season this spring in half a century, going all the way to the College World Series in Omaha.

Go ahead - just ask a Beaver fan.

"Well, first, Oregon doesn't have a baseball program," says Suzie Hunter, the sports manager for the Kidsports office in Springfield and an OSU graduate who's known for wearing nothing but orange and black around town. "That's why they didn't make the playoffs this year."

But how can Corvallis be a better sports town when Eugene has Hayward Field, the Fenway Park of track and field?

"Who cares about track," Hunter says. "We have women's track up there. And we have crew. Where can they do crew at Oregon - the Millrace? And let's not forget that Civil War score. What's the temperature around here, anyway, 50-21?"

Yes, Hunter is just poking fun. And why not let her gloat this time? After all, Eugene is almost always ranked ahead of Corvallis on The Sporting News list.

Besides this year, the only other time in the past six years Corvallis got the nod over Eugene was in 2001, after OSU's football team pummeled Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl and finished with a No. 4 national ranking. Corvallis was ranked No. 56 that year on the list, and Eugene was at No. 57.

Eugene's highest ranking was three years ago when it finished at No. 49. That ranking came just seven months after Joey Harrington led the Ducks to a 38-16 thrashing of Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl to finish No. 2 in the nation. That was also the year the UO men's basketball team made it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.

And what place did Corvallis take that year? Try No. 101.

Although McIver concedes that Corvallis deserved to be ahead of Eugene this year, he doesn't believe that Corvallis is actually a better sports town than Eugene.

"Just the idea of a place where Steve Prefontaine ran and where Hayward Field still stands," he says of Eugene. "And certainly Autzen Stadium is the best (football) facility in the Pac-10."

The fact that Eugene was only four spots ahead of Pullman, Wash., the home of the Washington State Cougars, on the list, is more of a shocker than finishing behind Corvallis, McIver says.

He predicts better news for Duck fans when next year's poll comes out, and not such good news for Beaver fans.

"Corvallis will suddenly become much closer to Pullman than it appears on the map," McIver says.

TOP-10 SPORTS CITIES

The Sporting News ranked these American cities as the top sports cities in the nation for the 12 months ending in July. Heavy emphasis is put on the most recent records of the cities' professional and college teams. For the complete listing go to www.sportingnews.com/ features/bestsports cities2005, and click on "full list."

1: Boston

2: Philadelphia

3: Detroit

4: Miami

5: Los Angeles/Anaheim

6: Houston

7: Baltimore/Washington D.C.

8: Dallas/Fort Worth

9: Atlanta

10: New York/New Jersey

PAC-10 CITIES

These are Pac-10 cities in the Sporting News list, and their rankings.

5: Los Angeles/Anaheim

16: Seattle

56: Tempe, Ariz.

61: Berkeley, Calif.

62: Tucson, Ariz.

66: Corvallis

68: Palo Alto, Calif.

83: Eugene

87: Pullman, Wash.

Note: Tempe, Ariz., Berkeley and Palo Alto were ranked as part of metropolitan areas, but the poll included a separate note saying where some college towns would land on the list if ranked alone.

IN THE NORTHWEST

The ranking of Northwest teams in the Sporting News list. Eugene's lowly finish among Pac-10 cities suddenly doesn't look so bad when compared to all the cities ranked in the Northwest. Here are a few of the 22 Northwest cities that made the list.

39: Portland

66: Corvallis

75: Boise

83: Eugene

87: Pullman

124: Moscow, Idaho

131: Spokane

223: Cheney, Wash.

272: Tacoma

377: Salem

CAPTION(S):

Oregon State fans stormed the field after the Beavers beat the Ducks 50-21 at Civil War in 2004.