Whois & Analysis for thespun.com

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

A total of 30 teams now play in the National League (NL) and American League (AL), with 15 teams in each league.

The NL and AL operated as separate legal entities from 1876 and 1901 respectively.

After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, the leagues merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000.

The organization also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises about 240 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs.

With the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament.

College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities.

It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.

No minor league farm organizations exist in American football.

Therefore, college football is generally considered to be the second tier of American football in the United States; one step ahead of high school competition, and one step below professional competition.

It is in college football where a player's performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football.

The best collegiate players will typically declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition, with the NFL holding its annual draft every spring.

256 players are selected annually.

Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as an undrafted free agent.

The history of basketball is traced back to a YMCA International Training School, known today as Springfield College, located in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The sport was created by a physical education teacher named James Naismith, who in the winter of 1891 was given the task of creating a game that would keep track athletes in shape and that would prevent them from getting hurt a lot.

The date of the first formal basketball game played at the Springfield YMCA Training School under Naismith's rules is generally given as December 21, 1891.

Basketball began to spread to college campuses by 1893.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the major men's professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world.

It has 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada), and is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA (also known as the International Basketball Federation) as the national governing body for basketball in the United States.

The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC).

The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, and the highest professional level of American football in the world.

The NFL's 17-week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after Christmas, with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week.

Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each conference (four division winners and two wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, which is usually held in the first Sunday in February, and is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC.