It's a decision that plagues sports fans across the province every night at home watching TV. So, what's it gonna be, sports fan? Sportsnetnews or Sportscentre?

Choosing between sports news shows is akin to choosing between Coke and Pepsi: they're both fundamentally the same; and, unless you're a true connoisseur, you're favouring one will force you to despise the other.

Sports news has become a competitive, entertaining business. For the nearly fifteen years before Sportsnet, the only all sports, all the time channel in Canada was TSN. The daily sports news used to come solely from Sportscentre, or SportsDesk as it was once called. Those were simpler times, back when Rod Smith, Gino Reda, Michael Landsberg, and Jim Van Horn would deliver the straight goods, giving Canadians their sports news of the day with an occasional joke here and there. Heck, the best gag Jim Van Horn had going was cracking up every time he called wrestling "rassling." Oh, how things have changed!

Today's sports news show has become an exact science: one anchor delivers the jokes, while the other anchor sets them up. But, humour aside, which network does a better job of delivering the sports news of the day in an objective, professional way?

Each network can throw something different at you every night, often mixing and matching their anchor duos until the audience responds favourably (think Jamie Campbell and Mike Toth most recently, or Rod Smith and Darren Dutchyshen a few years back).

Sportsnet News goes for the funny every time out, but it doesn't always succeed, especially with Jason Portuondo delivering the punch line. I'm not even going to touch his peppering hip-hop references throughout the show, but I'll say this: I'm not his biggest fan. Sportscentre is often funny without trying too hard, which is a good thing, but they still don't have that number one funny man on their staff to put them over the top. Jay Onrait is hilarious, and he's almost there, but he can be a little too deadpan at times. But in the end, it comes down to the little thing, like which network did you watch last time out? Which show starts earliest? Who goes to commercial first (because, if you're like me, then you switch over to the rival sports new show)? Who has the least annoying ticker? These are all things that you take into consideration when watching sports news, sometimes without even noticing it.

Honourable mention goes out to The Score for being the only 24 hour sports news channel. Tim Micallef is the funniest sports news personality on Canadian television, and he's also one of the most knowledgeable.

On September 1st, 1984, TSN made its network debut. The idea of a twenty-four hour sports channel in Canada is no longer laughable, thanks in large part to ESPN, who coincidentally celebrated their 25th anniversary this past September. Credit is due to the Worldwide Leader, as they brought some of the greatest sports personalities to television: Chris Berman, Dan Patrick, Stuart Scott, and Craig Kilborn, among others. Without ESPN, Sportsnet and TSN would never have been brought to life, leaving most of us waiting until the end of the eleven-o'clock news to get our daily dose of sports scores and highlights.