Baseball’s new Wild Card format got me thinking – if I could change one thing in each major sport, what would it be?
MLB – Problem: I am sick of 162 games not meaning anything and Wild Card teams winning the World Series. The regular season used to mean something; the new one-game playoff helps even the field a bit, but it’s not enough in my mind.
Solution: the team with the best record in each league should get 4 home games in the best of 5 first round series.The Wild Card would have to earn a playoff victory and the teams with the best record in each league would have a real advantage.
NFL – Problem: pass interference is too subjective of a penalty to be giving up 40 yards on a single play. Offensive players are allowed to push-off all the time and defensive players get called for most PIs, with no consistency at all.
Solution: make PI a 15-yard penalty and not a spot foul on the defense. A call that inconsistent should not result is such a huge chunk of yardage.
NCAA Football – Problem: the BCS – the entire system is awful; bowl games are about money and nothing else. If FCS, D-II, and D- III schools can have a playoff, so can BCS schools. Those students all travel, and miss classes that they actually go to in the first place.
Solution: a 16-team playoff starting the second weekend in December, and ending on a Monday night a full week after Jan 1. First and second round games would be played at traditional bowl sites or other neutral sites with geography playing a small role.
The Rose Bowl would always host a semifinal on Jan 1st (along with another BCS Bowl). This way they could keep their parade, and thus some of the prestige and tradition alive.
NCAA Basketball – Problem: the one and done superstar; the great talent doesn’t stay, which leads to plenty of problems.
Solution: adopt college baseball and college football’s rule – a player must be three years removed from high school graduation before he can be drafted.
I know this would be hard to push by the player’s union, but there is a precedent. It would help the NBA also; they would no longer have to draft on potential over production.
NBA – Problem: David Stern. The worst commissioner is pro sports is ruining the NBA by promoting superstars over the game itself.
Solution: hire Mark Cuban. He is a visionary, a winner, and a great businessmen; and he would put the NBA on par with the NFL. MLB named an owner commissioner in Bud Selig, so there is precedent here as well.
The NBA is in desperate need of a facelift and Cuban is the guy to get the job done.
Tags: BCS, College Baseball, David Stern, Mark Cuban, MLB, MLB Wild Card Rule, NBA, NCAA, NCAA Basketball, NCAA Football, NFL, One and Done
The Sports Cult 
December 16, 2012 at 12:09 AM |
O.K. you are a freak of nature! Just kiiddng. I think its awesome that you are so passionate about sports. For me, March Madness is number one because I usually have a dog (Villanova) in the fight. No offense to Michael Vick. But football is a very close second. Baseball can be fun but in the summer there are so many other things to do, it’s not that interesting to me.
December 16, 2012 at 8:26 AM |
Thanks, I am pretty disappointed, in what college football is doing to college basketball, the Big East is dead and so is the Big East tourney.
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