Sports-team names: singular or plural?

This question, from a quiz on agreement, was a subject of disagreement:

The Wizards are terrible this year, but the Magic is having another great season.

AP style calls for Magic is. However, grammar books, along with some editors and many students, prefer Magic are.

Even the pros do not follow AP style on this point. Consider this phrase from a story by David Hyde, sports reporter for the Orlando Sentinel (10/30/10):
The Magic were (not was) coming off an easy win at home ...

Or this story with no byline from Miami Herald (10/31/10):
The Heat have (not has) won [six of their last seven games] at New Jersey.


I polled some of my sports-oriented friends in journalism. Their responses:

From former sports editor Steve Koehler:
I’m pretty sure that team nicknames are considered plural i.e. The Jazz are crap, the Heat are awful, etc. The Magic are terrific. I'm pretty sure that’s AP’s rule. Whatever AP says is the rule media should be following...

From former sports editor Jeff Majeske:
I've approached teams like that as a ''they.'' The Jazz are going for their third straight win. The Heat were led by Dwyane Wade’s 29 points. From a grammatical standpoint, Heat, Jazz, etc., are collectives. My reasoning for not following this convention is that newspapers should reflect how people talk (within certain boundaries, of course). When in doubt, I rely on what sounds correct.

From MSU Jack Dimond, MSU journalism instructor:

Ed: The online AP Stylebook says the singular nicknames that plural verbs. Here's the full entry (I can't really think of why there is a logical difference between the Orlando Magic and the Stanford Cardinal):

collective nouns -- Nouns that ...denote a unit take singular verbs and pronouns: class, committee, crowd, family, group, herd, jury, orchestra, team.

However, team names such as the Jazz, the Magic, the Avalanche and the Thunder take plural verbs.

Many singular names take singular verbs: Boston is favored in the playoffs. The Cardinal is in the NCAA tournament.

If you want my personal opinion, it should be ''Magic are.'' It’s singular in form but plural in meaning, in the sense that it refers to the players on the team rather than the team as a single entity. OK, so this doesn't really make any sense, but I think one of the reasons we have style rules is that you just have to pick something and go with it.

Here’s my thought: Consider using team names as singular or plural, as the case suggests, in the same way that "jury" and "couple" are handled.