But those who decided to follow the league despite the plethora of negative publicity had an opportunity to see a whole different side. They found that most of the year's worth of hype leading up to the inaugural season actually wasn't hype at all. The XFL delivered on a lot of its promises.

So with just a few days left until the end of the XFL's first season, let's take a look at the league's first report card -- Part 1.

Television ratings: D

Let's just get this one out of the way. After 14 million people tuned in to watch the debut game, television viewership dropped considerably from week to week before bottoming out at around a 1.7 rating, or fewer than 2 million viewers. The league's recent ratings have been among the lowest in prime time history. While expectations for the league's secondary broadcasts on UPN and TNN were lower, even those numbers consistently were consistently flat. Some attribute the small viewership to the poor athleticism displayed during the first few weeks of the season. After watching the spectacle that was the XFL debut in January, media critics panned the league and got the word out that the XFL was not worth watching. The curiosity factor among casual fans faded after the first couple of weeks, and the league's hype about how great it was has been far outweighed by the media's hype about how poor it was. Promotional stunts caused tiny bumps in the ratings here and there, but the 1.7 rating probably accounts for the last of the league's true followers. It's not much of a silver lining, but there might be something to the claim that the league's ratings have taken a hit because there are so few teams and so few cities that have a home team to watch and cheer for.

Live attendance: B

20,000 fans scattered around a 70,000-seat football stadium might not translate well on TV, but for a league that has only existed for about three months, the numbers are significant and should be considered a success. Granted, the league's live attendance average of about 25,000 fans per game gets a big bump from some of the bigger markets such as San Francisco and New York -- where an attendance of 30,000 is not uncommon -- but even the smallest markets have averaged more than 15,000. That's certainly more than other startup sports leagues can boast about in their first season and more than several established pro sports teams draw. When you take into consideration that the league only makes a fraction of the total seats in a stadium available for sale, the numbers are even better. At the very least, the live attendance has made for a steady revenue stream for the league and a good base to build upon in future seasons. The bitter paradox: Maybe if some of those fans stayed home and watched the game on TV, the ratings would be better. If nothing else, the number of fans coming to games rather than watching them on television lends some validity to the league's boasts about the "in-stadium experience" being where it's at.

General recognition: B+

It might be for all the wrong reasons, but the XFL has become quite the household name. The league's poor ratings have probably done more to get the name out there and earn publicity than good ratings could have. It's hard to spin that into a positive, but if nothing else, the XFL brand has been established. That had to be a major goal of the World Wrestling Federation and NBC when they launched the venture. The league has established itself as a legitimate sports entity among pockets of sports fans in the country. In New York, it's not unusual to read about the previous night's game in the paper, see a few teen-agers wearing Hitmen jerseys at the local mall, or catch a couple of guys talking about the league at the sports bar. Cross promotion in the mega-popular WWF programming has certainly boosted awareness even further. The XFL name might not have the best reputation behind it, but at least it's out there.

Game play: A-

This might be the one category in which the league is the most inaccurately portrayed. After watching just the first week or two of games, critics lambasted the sub-par play and have continued to stick by that assertion ever since. Vince McMahon recently went on a mini-promotional tour talking up the league and its "fantastic" game play. Most people blew off his claims as more hype. But those who have continued to watch the league after its first few rocky weeks have witnessed an evolution. As the league tweaked some of its rules and the players became more accustomed to performing against each other and on a national stage, the games increasingly got better. In fact, some XFL followers would tell you the play itself is the only redeeming value of the league. Several games have been decided in the final play, several teams have made miraculous comebacks in fourth quarters and players like Chicago's John Avery and Orlando's Jeff Brohm have shined in their positions.

Others have been talked about as possible NFL Draft picks in coming years. After some low-scoring games and blowouts in the first few weeks, games have been mostly competitive with plenty of points on the board. In fact, until the last two weeks of the season, most of the teams in the league were still in the playoff hunt. McMahon was the first to say that the first games of the season left a lot to be desired and attributed the lack athleticism to a short preseason. Hopefully by next year, all the teams will hit the gates running and prove to viewers that the game play is much better than some would have you believe. Sure it's still not up to NFL standards, but this isn't the NFL.

Part 2 of the XFL's first season report card next week.