Sports Things I Would Change

     I recently was watching Mike and Mike in the morning while I got ready for work, as I often do, and they were talking about what rules in sports they would change.  A friend suggested that I write here about what rules I will change when they put me in charge of the world some day.  Some of them are rules, some of them are other parts of sports I would change, all are excellent ideas.

     Change 1:  I would re-organize the divisions in Major League Baseball, and would include two expansion teams.  They say that on opening day, everyone has the same chance to win the World Series.  This is not true for two reasons.  The first reason is that different teams have different budgets for their payroll, and so some teams never really have a chance (read: Pittsburgh Pirates), but that is not the basis of my rule change.  The second reason, the rule changing reason, is that some teams have a better or worse chance to make the playoffs based on what division, or league they play in.  Each league in baseball gets four teams in the playoffs, but the National League has 16 teams, and the American League only has 14 teams.  Also, because the leagues have a different amount of teams, the division are off as well, where the NL Central has six teams, and the AL West only has four teams.  This gives teams in the AL West a 10% better chance to make the playoffs than the teams in the NL Central before a game is even played. 

     I would add two teams to the American League to make 16 teams in each league, and four divisions of four teams in each league.  I would add a team in North Carolina, because there are no teams in between the Nationals and the Braves, and in Tennessee, because I am now in charge and I want a team in Tennessee.  I like the idea of having a team in Las Vegas, but let's face it, no one is going to Vegas to watch a baseball game.  So with Carolina and Tennessee, here are my new updated divisions.

American League:

East:  NY Yankees, Boston, Baltimore, Toronto
North:  Minnesota, Chicago White Sox, Detroit, Cleveland
South:  Kansas City, Carolina, Tennessee, Tampa Bay
West:  LA Angels, Oakland, Seattle, Texas

National League:

East:  Atlanta, Philadelphia, NY Mets, Washington
North:  Chicago Cubs, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati
South:  Florida, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Houston
West:  San Fransisco, Colorado, LA Dodgers, San Diego

     Before you say anything, I realize the geographical names of these divisions don't make sense in every case, but I felt like this was the best way to keep all the natural rivalries together.  With two wild card teams in each league, this would also make for an extra round of playoffs.  I would make it a best of 3 series, keeping it short and sweet.

     I have three rule changes about college basketball, and two of them are about the excruciating pain of watching the end of close games.  The reason I say college basketball instead of all basketball is because I don't watch many NBA games, so I'm not sure if the rules about game management translate exactly the same.  So, in a close college basketball game, the coaches call timeouts after almost every play near the end of the game.  They do this to make new plays, set new defenses, and decide things like whether or not to foul the other team on purpose to stop the clock.  Each team has five timeouts, four of which they can carry over from the first half to the second half.  Now you may notice that there are many timeouts during a college basketball game, but these timeouts most often are not called by the coaches, but rather they are TV timeouts.  In college basketball, there is a TV timeout for every four minutes of game clock, to make sure enough commercials are shown during the game.  This stops the clock so often, that coaches can save their own timeouts for the end of the game.  This often leads the last two minutes of a game to last up to twenty actual minutes.  I would keep the TV timeouts, but limit the teams to two timeouts per team for each game.

     The other college basketball rule I would change to stop the extremely long end of games, are to actually call intentional fouls when it is known that a team is fouling on purpose.  When a team has gotten to the point where it looks like they are about to lose a close game, they foul the other team on purpose, so the clock is stopped, and the team has to make two free throws.  This is a huge advantage the creates more plays, and allows a team more opportunities to catch up to the winning team.  The problem is, there is already a rule in place forbidding intentional fouls, except no one ever calls it.  I think if a team gets to the point where they have to resort to fouling on purpose, than they should have to deal with the penalties of intentionally fouling, which would never happen because when an intentional foul is called, the fouled team gets the ball back anyway.

     My last college basketball rule change idea is one I have had for a long time, and to this day no one has ever agreed with me about it.  I would like to ban the alley-oop which is perhaps the most exciting play in all of basketball.  The reason I don't like it is because it is nearly impossible to defend.  Even if a player is in position to intercept the soon-to-be-dunked basketball, they won't do it because it looks like a shot, and to defend a shot on its way down to the basket is also a penalty.  Any play that is impossible to defend should be illegal.
     I have two major rule changes about NASCAR.  One is short, sweet, and simple.  There should never be a line that a car is not allowed to cross to pass another car.  If a driver wants to go down on the grass in order to make a pass for the lead, then they should be able to try it.  It would almost never work, but would be a lot of fun to watch.  My second rule is also a simple one, and this is almost universally accepted as something that needs to happen in NASCAR.  Some races are just plain too long.  NASCAR races can last over five hours, and that's without any major delays in the race.  Due to new technology in the cars, there are some tracks where it is extremely difficult for cars to pass each other, and the cars spread out a lot, so basically it is five hours of cars riding in a single file line, with brief interruptions of actual racing.  Races should last about three hours, the same length as a regulation football range

     My last rule change is with college football and basketball.  There should be no rules on when an athlete is allowed to turn pro.  People should be able to make their own decisions on when to forfeit their amateur status and become a professional.  If they make a bad decision, then they have to deal with life like the rest of us and get a real job.  Also, if a player is good enough to be a pro, than the fact that they are only two years removed from high school should not prevent them from doing so. 

     These are my rules for what I am going to change when I am in charge.  Tell me what you think about mine, and also tell me any rule changes you have.  I'll let you know what I think if you have any!