Eagles

Ranking Philadelphia Sports Teams from Most Compelling to Least Compelling

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 5th, 2026 · 10:11 AM EST

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The Sixers won on Wednesday night, but does anybody really care? They beat a tanking Jazz team. Joel Embiid, Paul George, and VJ Edgecombe didn’t play. Shout out to Jabari Walker, who stepped up big time, but there was nothing compelling about that game, and there’s not much compelling about the team. They remain 6th in the Eastern Conference and if the playoffs began right now, they’d be traveling to Madison Square Garden to play the Knicks. The Sixers are barely avoiding the play-in tournament right now and a lot of fans are still annoyed with the Jared McCain trade.

So it got us to thinking – which teams are currently compelling, and which are not? Who is worthy of our time and attention?

Let’s rank Philly sports teams from most compelling to least compelling, at this current moment in time:

1. Phillies: Say what you will about the Phils “running it back,” but this is a 96-win team. The core is intact, and it’s a quality core. Zack Wheeler won’t miss much time. They’re gonna work some of the young guys in, finally. Spring is coming and Philadelphia is a baseball town. We’re throwing our support behind the boys even if the vibes aren’t what they were a few years ago.
2. Eagles: It’s the Eagles; they just happen to be in the offseason. The Birds will always be compelling and will always be #1 in the city when they’re playing. And I have a feeling that last year’s clunker of a title defense season will be an aberration. I think they come out pissed and motivated next year – and, most importantly – healthy along the offensive line. We still trust Howie Roseman.
3. Flyers: The Flyers aren’t winning the Cup this year, and they’re probably not going to the playoffs unless this heater continues, but they are compelling because we’re in a key moment of the rebuild. The trade deadline approaches. Do they move Risto? What will Porter Martone look like as a pro? Does Matvei Michkov finish well down the stretch? There’s interesting stuff happening with this team right now, regardless of what the results are on the ice. The Flyers at this moment remind me a little bit of the 2016 Sixers in terms of people starting to care again as the rebuild evolves. Fans are ready, willing, and able, they just need the franchise to take the next step before committing to a serious relationship.
4. Union: They’re 0-2 in league play to start, and they flipped almost half the squad after winning the Supporters’ Shield, but they have Club America coming up in the Champions League and you see some glimpses of what they can be when they get Quinn Sullivan healthy and get this new left back in the starting lineup. The U are always going to be hamstrung by the thriftiness of ownership, but of all the teams in town, they have the most identifiable strategy and philosophy, and there’s no ambiguity in what you’re getting.
5. St. Joe’s: At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Hawks are a great story. To put it into perspective, imagine if Jay Wright quit on the Wildcats a few weeks before the season, then his assistant took over and Mikal Bridges was kicked off the team 10 games in. A few more weeks pass, you look up, and they’re 3rd in the conference and defying all expectations. Steve Donahue and those players have done a really good job on Hawk Hill.
6. Sixers: They’re a tiring team. It’s been great to see Joel Embiid look like himself when he’s on the court, but he played just five games in February and hasn’t appeared at all in March. Paul George is suspended. Tyrese Maxey has to go out there every night and carry the load alongside rookie VJ Edgecombe, who has been a good story, but I can’t shake this overwhelming feeling that the Sixers are a taxing team. We’ve put a lot of equity into supporting this group since the end of the Process era, and we’ve gotten very little in return. Even a few years ago we were in “wake me up when the playoffs begin” mode, and I think that’s totally fair. Everybody is justified in climbing back on the bandwagon if they can bring a healthy Embiid into the playoffs for the first time in forever.
7. Villanova basketball: Kevin Willard has done a great job turning around the Cats in year 1; they just don’t have a quality win. They don’t have the horses to be competitive with the S Tier of college basketball teams, proven recently by their double-digit losses to UConn and St. John’s. They should get into the tournament based on win volume alone, which will be a good step in getting this program back to what it used to be.
8. <big gap here>
9. Temple football: At least KC Keeler seems like the right hire. The Owls flamed out with four straight losses to miss out on a bowl game, but they showed some glimpses of being a respectable squad this past season and there’s evidence to suggest that they won’t outright stink moving forward.
10. Temple basketball: They desperately have to get out of that conference. It’s fine for football, but it’s an abomination in basketball. Absolutely ridiculous. Not only do the Owls fall apart every season when the calendar flips, but they lose to teams that nobody cares about, like Rice, North Texas, and UAB. Temple basketball is not even remotely relevant in this city and that’s tough to see.
11. the rest of the Big 5: Drexel and La Salle will never have the resources in the NIL world to reach the top of their conferences. Zack Spiker has done a nice job with the Dragons over the years, but they largely are what they are, finishing a few games over .500 and then going out in the conference quarterfinals. Darris Nichols has a real challenge with that La Salle program and Fran McCaffery has the Penn Quakers playing well enough in the Ivy League in year #1. He should be able to get that team going again.
12. Villanova football: The Wildcats have always had a pretty good football program, they just don’t get a lot of attention playing at the FCS level in a pro sports town. But what’s compelling is the 2026 move from the CAA to the Patriot League, where they’ll play teams like Lehigh and Lafeyette in conference. It feels like a better geographic fit for them.
13. Wings: 3-9 this season and a complete afterthought. They’ve had some good individual players since making their Philly return, but they just haven’t done anything to capture any kind of real attention.

Thoughts? What say you?