Taking a quick glance at the current NBA standings I see that every team in the Southwest Division is guaranteed to end with a winning record. Can anybody think of any other time that has happened in a North American professional league?
In 1991, none of the seven teams in the American League West has a losing record. The last place team was California, who finished 81-81. Given that this was, again, a seven-team division, that’s kind of remarkable.
In 1994, NONE of the teams in the now just four-team AL West had a winning record or were even close to it when the strike ended the season, saving them all the embarrassment.
In the NFL, the most recent example of a division with no losing teams is the 2007 season, when two divisions managed it. The last-placed team in the AFC South, Houston, went 8-8, and the rest of the division had winning records. Similarly, in the NFC North, the Eagles were on the bottom with an 8-8 record, and the rest of the division was over .500.
Not as impressive as a seven-team baseball division, though.
Going all the way back to the mid-1960s, i found a few more occasions when all teams in a division were at .500 or better (including 2002, when two divisions did it again), but no instance where every team was actually over .500.
This has happened quite a few times in football, most recently last season, when the NFC South was won by Carolina with a record of 7-8-1.
It happened four years ago, in the NBA. Same division, in fact.
In the NHL, in the 2010-2011 season, all the teams in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference had winning records.
Last place in the division went to Dallas, with 42 wins, 29 losses, and 11 overtime losses.