The Associate Press released their top 10 sports stories of the year:

1. Tiger’s lost year
2. LeBron’s free-agency
3. Saints’ Super Bowl win
4. Giants’ World Series win
5. Lakers’ repeat as champs
6. NFL concussion awareness
7. Canada Olympic gold hockey win
8. Spain’s World Cup victory
9. Jimmie Johnson’s drive for five
10. Stephen Strasburg’s debut

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around each topic. The top 10 AP stories are listed in order below with bars representing amount of chatter on blogs, Twitter and other news feeds.

Last week, the world received news of Tiger Woods being hospitalized with serious injury from a car accident. The world felt sorry for Tiger, wished him well, and waited in anticipation for news of his recovery. This week, the world has a different perspective. As details began to spill, the world had learned that his car accident was the result of Tiger fleeing from his wife as she chased after him, bashing his car with a golf club from news of his unfaithful behavior. How did the public react? How has the sentiment changed? Let’s do some research.

First, let’s compare the topics of conversation around Tiger Woods before news broke of his alleged affairs.

Tiger Woods Topics (Before News Broke of Affairs):

Tiger Woods Topics (After News Broke of Affairs):

Tiger Woods Sentiment Before Accident:

Tiger Woods Sentiment After News Of Affairs:

We then go on to measure which topics were being discussed the most around Tiger Woods chatter. Below are some of the topics we analyzed. We included some of the hot topics, including the names of potential mistresses being mentioned.

We also wanted to take a quick peek at the Nike. Let’s see if there’s any real effect or association of this negativity with their brand.

Tiger Woods mentions within Nike chatter

Nike Sentiment within Tiger Woods conversations

Nike BEFORE:

Nike AFTER:

Nike’s negativity did increase this past week, but not significantly. We can certainly conclude that Nike’s brand wasn’t severely affected by this mess. However, Tiger Woods’ brand certainly has been. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how this continues to affect his brand in the coming weeks.

Even without a dramatic Tiger Woods comeback victory at Augusta National on Sunday, Masters Tournament web chatter nearly doubled in 2009. The trend chart below compares chatter around the 2008 and 2009 Masters Tournaments.

The @The_Masters Twitter account rapidly accumulated 41,442 followers throughout the tournament this weekend. The Masters Facebook page has 42,811 fans. The Masters iPhone app released April 1 is currently the #4 most downloaded free app on iTunes.

We’ll also be monitoring buzz on the NBA playoffs over the next month after TNT announced that Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and other on-air talent will be Twittering during games beginning April 14.