I'm sure I could come up with quite a few, but I'm going to try to keep it to one in order to preserve some items for a possible future version on this topic.
Baseball;
It's not even close-Interleague play.
Hate it.
The other major sports would kill for the tradition of the separate leagues and here baseball is diluting that.
I'd eliminate that tomorrow or for those of you in the major markets that just have to have that Mets-Yankees series each year, each team is assigned one 'rival' for a four-game series every year for a two-game home and home.
There are things I'd change about baseball, but most are scheduling, statistical or administrative.
I don't mind most of the proposed in-game changes such as the pitch clock, limited mound visits or even a rule that would eliminate the pitching specialist that forces a pitcher to pitch to three batters, so for an opinionated traditionalist, I don't think I'm THAT bad!
Pro Football:
I'll go with a game change and revert to their original overtime period of fifteen minutes.
I know their change to ten minutes was supposedly in the vein of "player safety" (Like the NFL cares about that with Thursday night games every week), but since ten minute periods are barely enough for both teams to have one possession at times, let alone multiple possessions.
I know there were just two ties last season, but there were a few near-misses and the system seems set up more to encourage ties rather than break them.
I'd almost rather just keep ties after regulations than have them at the end of overtime.
College Football:
Again, it's overtime, but in a different manner.
I've never liked the college overtime because I think it eliminates the special teams' aspect from the game and it artificially inflates statistics, but when we move into these six and seven overtime periods, overkill is a word that only mildly describes those exhausting games.
The NCAA is trying to tweak this with a change that alternates two-point conversions after the fourth overtime rather than a entire possession. but while that may help in safety in keeping exhausted players off the field, my change would be this- start each possession at the 50 rather than the current 25 yard line.
This would have the effect of more space to make mistakes and I think that would lessen the likelihood of those endurance marches disguised as overtime games.
College Basketball:
The easy answer is adding the baseball rule to basketball, which would allow high school players to jump to the NBA, but once they step onto a college campus, they aren't eligible to leave until after their junior year.
This would allow players to make money quickly and not have to go through the sham of attending classes for essentially one semester, NBA teams to have the option of taking the raw player and developing those players themselves and still getting better-prepared players from the college ranks.
The colleges win as well with coaches and supporters having players in their programs for at least three years as they can plan for the future without worrying about an NBA departure and fans can embrace players as long-term parts of their programs.
Pro Basketball:
The college basketball change affects the NBA too, so I'll select something small for the pro game.
I really hate their no-trade rule on the clock during their drafts.
It's ridiculous that players like Dirk Nowitzki that spent their entire career with a team (Mavericks) cannot technically say they have been with the organization forever because they were drafted by someone else, in Nowitzki's case the Bucks.
In addition, it takes away the moment of the player being drafted with all the pictures, etc and ruins it for everyone when the players meet the commissioner, take photos, etc with the hat and logo of a team that they spent ten minutes with.
It's a minor change, but an easy one to make.
Hockey:
Another easy change- the far too soft terms that expansion teams are now entering the league are simply unfair.
I know that every time that the expansion entry fees leap through the roof that the argument is- "well since they are paying so much, they deserve competitive teams".
I couldn't disagree more.
I know that so many thought Las Vegas advancing to the Stanley Cup was a cute story and many fans were rooting for them, but here are my points- yes, I get that it takes time to build and that time taken can seem interminable, however, here is my argument- If you pay no price (I.E. live through the losing times) because your local team is an instant winner, what will happen when that team eventually drops in the standings?
That is why I question the expansion teams being too good too quickly as the honeymoon can peak too soon.
Look at Columbus and their fans this season, you only have one first time (which is why to a certain age group the Miracle of Richfield Cavaliers are more fondly remembered than even the championship Cavaliers), do you want to use that too soon and have the casual fan base think that things come this easy always?
Las Vegas will be the first test case, but the next expansion in Seattle will be a further test of this theory.
Boxing:
I'd love to return to 15 round fights, but even more than that would be a change to weighing in on the morning of the fight.
I know that is not a perfect solution as fights could come in weakened from weight loss (although an early morning weigh-in would help immensely), but I'd rather the fighter that cannot make weight be penalized more than the fighter had fewer problems hitting the mark fighting a blown up fighter.
In addition, the fighter struggling at the scales would have an extra 12 hours or so to enable him to make the weight.
I know there are people that think that day of weigh-ins aren't good for the fighters, but is it any better to have inflated boxers with 36 hours before a fight to jump up sometimes two divisions by bell time?
Daniel Jacobs has twice in marquee events pulled stunts designed to have a massive weight advantage in those fights against Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez and I think a day of the fight weigh-in would take some of that edge away from those that use that tactic.
Again, this has its own problems, but I think it solves more problems than it causes.
I'll likely be returning to this in future posts as some sports there were just too many things to change!
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