Changes in Sports You'd Like to See/Would Make

College football: Let both bands play at halftime instead of having stupid sponsor contests and boring presentations.

 

Soccer: It's bugging me that in the World Cup that unintentional handballs are the same sort of offense as a dirty tackle from behind. Not all offenses in gridiron are 15 yards and that's for good reason. But every yellow card in soccer carries the same weight, no matter the offense and that doesn't seem logical to me. But I'm not sure what a solution to that would be.

NFL: You want to encourage returns? Adopt the CFL rule: You don't bring the ball out of the end zone, you give up a point. Otherwise, I don't have any problems with the NFL.

College football: Allow any conference to have a championship game, regardless of the number of teams. You want one, Sun Belt? Go for it. You don't want one? That's OK, too. Why does a conference need 12 teams to have one? They don't have to have 12 to have a basketball or baseball tournament. This rule makes no sense, really.

College basketball: 64-team tournament, period. What's the point of having a minimum number of at-large seeds (Oh, right, so a major conference can get in one more team that was under .500 in its conference in the regular season)? No play-in games.

College softball: Looks like those outfield fences can go back about 10 feet or so now. I'm watching girls in juco softball who couldn't hit one to the warning track in high school become power hitters in college because the juco fences are 10-15 feet closer than the fields they played on in high school. Juco teams shouldn't have 10 girls capable of hitting 10 home runs. (This year's NCAA Division I College World Series also is strong evidence). And get rid of that lane in the pitching circle. It's gone by the second inning and it's not enforced anyway.

Baseball: Drop Interleague play. The sheen is gone and now these are just another few games on the schedule. Then don't replace those games with intraleague games (that would leave it a 144-game season?) so the season can be shortened and we don't have season openers in March or World Series games in November.

NHL: Grow a pair and demand NBC show all the Stanley Cup Finals games. Versus is hardly on anywhere and it isn't on here, so I miss games 3 and 4 every year. And so do many other fans. Want to grow the game? Let people watch them. I have an easier time finding CFL football on TV in the states than the NHL.

 

I assume a lot of this is under the "perfect world" setting and not offered as any kind of realistic suggestion.

Because MLB has no interest in shortening the schedule. They make too much money selling 162 games to ticket buyers and broadcast rights holders.

They're not bringing back doubleheaders, either. I'm not even sure people want them.

 

Some other changes:

College football:

A. Go back to an 11 game regular season schedule. After all, you're not supposed to be generating money anyways as an amateur sport. And the players, who are still young developing men, can use a week off during the season. The way it is now, some teams are playing 14 games if you count conference title games and bowls.

B. Cut the bowl games down to 18 or so. Any bowl in existence more than 20 years can stay. The rest get picked if they have a unique location, such as Boise. No city can host two bowls.

Baseball:

A. Speed up the games. Batters should not be allowed to leave the box once the pitcher has possession of the ball. Any step out is an automatic strike. There's no reason once you step in the box why you have to readjust your batting gloves or helmet.

And pitchers shouldn't be allowed to leave the mound once the pitcher gets the ball back from the catcher or other fielders.

B. At least one game in every playoff series and one World Series game gets played in daytime.

NFL: Guarantee at least a portion of the contracts for the players. Teams shouldn't be able to cut a player just for the heck of it.

 

MLB... Speed up games to 2:15 per game and then Sunday doubleheaders for all.

 

Check me if I'm wrong Sandy, but interleague play makes a "balanced" schedule nigh impossible. The only way to have a "balanced" schedule would be to move one team from the NL to the AL and have at least one interleague game every day of the season.

Back in the 1980s, when the NL was 12 teams and the AL was 14, the AL had something close to a balanced schedule (play teams in your division 13 teams, teams in other division 11). But the NL was way unbalanced (play teams in your division 18 times, other division 12).

Somebody who is way better than me at math could probably prove me wrong, but that's the way I understand it.

 

One more for general sports:

Fuck the west coast. There's no reason why east coast teams playing on the west coast have to begin at 10 p.m. eastern time.

Everyone whines about wanting to attract more fans, especially children, but they start games after kids have already gone to bed.

 

Yes, absolutely! Gary Bettman has to go over to 30 Rock and dictate policy to NBC. They'll crumble when he makes his demands.

 

Smash, I think most of these posts are the equivalent of people telling sports today to get off their lawns. False nostalgia. Like I'm sure most college football fans would rather be able to see only the ABC game of the week on Saturday and Notre Dame highlights on Sunday. :

 

Baseball is NEVER allowed to be played in November.

Football is NEVER allowed to be played in February.

 

Ridiculous. So west coast fans should have to be at midweek games at 4:00? I guess season ticket holders should quit there jobs.