Top 20 youth sports, for parents.

Here is a recap of the criterion, and the list! From today's pod. (August 12, 2026)

Topic: What are the top 20 youth sports, for the parents?

Criterion:

1. How does the sport actually upend your (the parent’s) life?  Early wakeups? Long drives? Weekends ruined? Diet changes?  How upset will you or your kid be if you miss an event? Are event times predictable?
2. Parent culture.  What type of other parents are you hanging out with and how much? How competitive are they?  Can you get away from them during a game?
3. Expense.  e.g. Travel teams, club teams, equipment, private lessons.
4. Physical and mental health toll for the kid.  What is the toll on the body?  Is it a solo or team sport?  Is there anyone else to blame for failures?  Is there parent guilt for letting your kid play?
5. Scholarship potential. 
6. Parent entertainment value.  How much fun to watch the games?  Is the sport easy to understand?  Indoor or outdoor?  How easy is it for you to sneak away to take a call during the event?  Can you watch other things during the event? 
7. Looking back.  Do adults who played the sport as a kid now recommend it or regret it?  Which sport do you wish you had played?  How long can you keep playing the sport into your adult life?

The List (note that the list actually has 19 sports, not 20).

1. Volleyball
2. Soccer
3. Lacrosse
4. Golf
5. Basketball
6. Field Hockey
7. Tennis
8. Baseball/Softball
9. Water polo
10. Skiing/Snowboarding/Surfing
11. Football
12. Hockey
13. Track and Field
14. Rowing
15. Cycling/Cross Country
16. Wrestling
17. Swimming
18. Gymnastics
19. Figure Skating

Personal takes:
~ No major qualms with the list. Personally I have football and hockey lower, swimming higher, and the not-included Ultimate Frisbee in the top-3. But this is all personal preference, obviously.

~ I would have included cheerleading since it's such a universal sport, and put it near the bottom, but higher than figure skating and gymnastics since it's more team-oriented. I would have also included Martial Arts (not getting into specific disciplines) and had it pretty high up.

~ The list ended up being pretty good, but the conversation didn't really follow the topic. The conversation was mostly about the sport from the kid's perspective, even though the topic and the criterion were supposed to be the parent's perspective. Also, Bill became fixated on scholarship potential for everything, when it's the least important criteria IMO. You probably have little idea how much the sport upends your life or what the parent culture is like for sports that your kids didn't play, so they just defaulted to scholarship potential, and entertainment value from the couple of times they ever watched that sport.