Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer are usually right at the top of any best of lists. Anything under 42 inches will be an LCD set. LG can be hit and miss depending on the model, same with Hitachi. Vizio, Westinghouse, and similar brands are cheaper than the first four brands, but will generally have slightly worse color and response time(response time can be a big issue with sports as some cheap LCD sets will have a motion blur around fast moving objects. I have seen some where you see a trail following a thrown football)
Now for a little bit that may be confusing. I would say a 720p resolution set would be the best for what you described. 1080p is only worth the money if you have either a large TV or sit very close to the set, otherwise the human eye can not tell the difference. And as almost all HD programing comes in 720 as the native resolution, you dont gain much, and 1080p is a big step up in money. The only things that put out a true 1080p signal are Blu-Ray players(including the PS3) a handful of Xbox360 games, or if you have a computer outputting to the set.
I would stay away from 1080i sets all together.
I would also say that you should look for one that can accept all signal resolutions(480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p). being able to accept all signals means that anything you may ever want to hook up to it at a later date(and who thinks 10 years out) will work just fine with the set.
Any other questions?