On Feb. 5, the New England Patriots and New York Giants will meet in Super Bowl XLVI for championship of the NFL.

But February is also when Spring Training starts for the 2012 MLB season. So the big question is: Is football or baseball America’s favorite sport?

More than a third of adults who follow at least one sport (36%) say professional football is their favorite sport while just 13% say baseball is their favorite, according to a new survey from The Harris Poll, conducted by Harris Interactive.

The result is not a one-time event. Pro football has outdistanced baseball every year since 1985, when this particular Harris Poll was first conducted. In fact, the lockout prior to the 2011 season had no effect as the gap between the two sports widened significantly over the previous survey, in which pro football topped baseball 31% -17%.

In addition, college football’s strength nationwide is at an all-time high, with the 13% of respondents who named it their favorite tying the sport for second with baseball.

The NBA lockout only impacted the Harris Poll in a minor way, with 5% naming pro basketball as their favorite sport, down only 1% from the previous poll. However, pro basketball has been far behind pro football and baseball for nearly 15 years, with the sport down 8% from its Harris Poll high of 13% back in 1997-98.

Following pro and college football and baseball, the Top 15 on new The Harris Poll survey are (in order) auto racing, men’s pro basketball, men’s college basketball, hockey, men’s tennis, boxing, horse racing, swimming, men’s golf, track & field, men’s soccer and bowling.

Although women’s sports have made some strides in popularity, in particular women’s soccer, The Harris Poll shows that only women’s tennis received as much as a 1% response among favorite sports.

Among particular demographics, African Americans (48%), people ages 30-39(46%) and those with some college (42%) cited pro football as their favorite sport .

Concurrently, people with a post-graduate education (28%), Born-again Christians (30%) and those aged 65 and older (30%) were among the least-favorite fans of pro football.

For baseball, people ages 50-64 (21%), Hispanics (19%) and Easterners (17%) are more likely to cite it as their favorite sport.  Meanwhile, African Americans (6%), those aged 30-39 (6%) and households with children (9%) are least likely to say baseball is their favorite.

Regarding college football, those with a post-graduate degree (22%), college graduates (19%) and Midwesterners (18%) were the demographic groups to cite it as their favorite sport while Easterners (4%), those with a household income of under $35,000 (8%) and those aged 50-64 (8%) were among the lowest groups to cite college football.

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between December 5 to 12, 2011 among 2,237 adults (aged 18 and over), 1,466 of whom say they follow at least one sport.

Source: The Harris Poll

PHOTOS: David Akers: Tony Medina/Icon SMI; Blake Griffin: Icon SMI