The NFL might be in the midst of a lockout but the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers still managed to get the best of the Vikings on Wednesday.

The Packers finished first overall in ESPN The Magazine's ninth annual "Best Franchises In Sports" rankings. The Vikings were 106th out of the 122 professional teams that were ranked.

The Twins were the top-rated Minnesota team at No. 39. The Wild was 92nd and the Timberwolves 118th.

So how does this work? Here's the explanation:

The feature is part of ESPN The Magazine's Ultimate Standings methodology study, which determines an overall ranking for pro sports franchises according to how much they give back to fans for the time, money and emotion they invest in them.

The rankings are determined by a multi-tiered analysis that examines a team's efficiency in spending fan money as compared to its on-field performance. It also factors in feedback in 21 categories from more than 70,000 fans nationwide, both online at ESPN.com and in polling conducted by both independent third parties.

The Packers were followed by the Tampa Bay Lightning at No. 2 overall in the rankings. The New Orleans Saints were ranked third, with the Los Angeles Angels fourth and the San Antonio Spus fifth. The remainder of the top ten were: Oklahoma City Thunder, Pittsburgh Steelers, Colorado Rockies, Memphis Grizzlies and Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Packers were the top-scoring team in two of the eight categories, topping all other teams in "stadium experience" and tying for the top spot in "title track"—championships won, or expected to be won, during the lifetime of current fans--with the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Packers also ranked fourth overall in "bang for the buck," and fifth overall in the categories "coaching" and "ownership." Their fan base makes up a substantial portion of ownership as the only publicly-owned team in U.S. pro sports.

In all, 122 teams from the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball were ranked in order, based on a weighted average of scores in eight different categories ranging from the quantitative to the emotionally subjective: "bang for the buck" (24.3%), players (16.6%), fan relations (16.5%), affordability (14.1%), stadium experience (9.1%), ownership (9.0%), title track (6.7%), and coaching (3.9%).

The issue of ESPN The Magazine will hit newsstands on Friday.