Sporting activities are much different. When you look at the Spurs, you know that much of their team will be the same next year. They will still have Tim Duncan and many other of the players that make the team so great. In drum corps, you're looking at keeping 135 members, many of who are age outs. The make up of drum corps' change every year, and it's a game of who is the best at featuring their strengths. You can't make predictions, even with sports, until you know what players are on which team, and in sports, you generally have this information much sooner, hence the earlier predictions.