Earlier this year, prior to the settlement of the CBA situation between the NFL and its players, there was some anxiety as to whether or not fans would re-embrace the league, consumers would continue to purchase NFL-related paraphernalia and marketers would continue to activate.

This may be jumping the gun a bit - typically these annual prediction pieces come out in that slow week between Christmas and New Years - but I figure it's good to get these out now so you can do more important things that week (like eat a lot of unhealthy food!).

Last year at this time, I put together my list of the most important life lessons one could take into the new year; each expressed in three words. In keeping with the end-of-year themes towards benevolent giving and introspection, this year's installment focuses on what we might expect in the world of sports marketing in 2012.

How will be golf be remembered in 2011? Was it Rory McIlroy's Masters collapse and then record-breaking performance at the U.S. Open? An undoubtedly magical moment for the game of golf. Or was it how Hurricane Irene disrupted The Barclays, the first event of the PGA Tour FedEx Cup to the point of essentially cancelling. Or perhaps what's most top-of-mind is Tiger Woods's continued slump, which continued until just this past weekend with his victory at the Chevron.