Special Report January 27, 2010, 10:00AM EST

America's Most Powerful Athletes

In today's sports world, power is about more than speed and strength. It's also about how to sell

What is power? In athletics it is usually thought of as bulging muscles and dominating performance. But in sports today, power has a different meaning, as well: the earning potential of athletes, owners, agents, communities, and brands, ranging from breakfast cereal to beer.

Because so much money is at stake, the question for general managers and brand managers alike is, Which athlete? There are dozens of potential candidates every year, some up-and-coming rookies, some fan favorites, and bona fide superstars. Which player will guarantee the best chance for winning? Will they behave themselves off the field? Can I trust them to give 100%? The ability to choose the right athlete is the difference between millions of dollars and a metaphorical cleat in the face.

To determine who the 100 most powerful athletes are on and off the field, Bloomberg BusinessWeek teamed with CSE, formerly known as Career Sports & Entertainment, an integrated sports and entertainment company that connects brands with fans, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek columnist Rick Horrow of Horrow Sports Ventures and host of The $ports Take with Sports Professor Rick Horrow, to create the 2010 version of the Power 100. Unlike previous Power 100s, this year's ranking would focus only on the athletes—not the owners, the agents, the commissioners, or the coaches. On-field metrics included athletes who scored the best on the field (or the rink, the greens, or the court) over a two-year period. The more popular the sport, the more weight those achievements garnered.

The Preeminence of Tiger

Meanwhile, the off-field metric was broken into five components: In addition to total endorsement income, CSE used public opinion polls to analyze and evaluate the athlete's awareness, trustworthiness, appeal, and influence to calculate power off the playing field. We then worked with CSE to weigh and measure those factors and combined them to come up with a total Power Score. (Click here to see the complete methodology.)

The winner, the world's most powerful athlete, is, unsurprisingly if a little controversially, Tiger Woods. That's because, at least as of Thanksgiving 2009, the man dominated his sport, and by extension the endorsement business, like few others in history. The 34-year-old golfer smashed records on the course and inked deals with companies ranging from Accenture (ACN) and American Express (AXP) to Nike (NKE) and Gillette that totaled $92 million in 2009. Indeed, even before his fall, Woods was expected to be the first athlete to make more than $1 billion in career earnings.

Based on CSE's data, Woods' Power 100 ranking would have been No. 1 even if the rumors of his infidelity had surfaced earlier last year. The question remains whether he will continue to hold the top spot now that some of his sponsors have withdrawn their support and he has taken an indefinite leave from the sport. Already, data since late November indicate that his popularity and hard-won trustworthiness have suffered. What became a gossip journalist's dream is a sports marketing nightmare.

Stepping into the Gap

There is no questioning Woods' golfing ability, however, and the public persona he carefully cultivated created a strongly favorable impression among advertisers and audiences alike.