11 Things

With football about to take over our lives, I thought I'd mark down some random thoughts that have been in my head over the summer. A lot of this list came to me while backpacking through Montana, so blame the fresh air if any of these things sound like they've gone past ludicrous speed.

1. We may never see the caliber of quarterback play as we did in the 2009 NFL playoffs. Of the twelve qualifying teams, we had three first ballot hall-of-famers (Farve, Brady, Manning), two Superbowl MVPs that are likely hall-of-famers (Brees, Warner), one quarterback that is a potential hall-of-famer (McNabb), three established stars in their primes (Romo, Rodgers, Rivers) two young stars that played in conference championship games withing their first two seasons (Sanchez, Flacco), and a former overall number one pick on a comeback from a horrific knee injury (Palmer). Has ever been a playoff year where over half of the quarterback class ended up in the hall of fame?

2. An 18 game regular season in the NFL is a bad idea. I understand the need to reduce the preseason, nobody wants to pay full price on a slate of games where no one of relevance plays meaningful snaps. But the owners would be short sighted to simply expand the regular season. A lot of people are calling for a the preseason to be reduced from 4 games to 2 (meaning season ticket holders would only have to pay full price on one preseason game) and expanding the playoffs to 8 teams per conference in a straight tournament format with no teams receiving byes. The problem with this is that it actually reduces the number of weeks football will be on, as well as reduce the number of home games for each team (and thus the owner's bottom line). Instead, here's an idea. Expand the playoffs to 12 teams per conference (I know it sounds like a lot, but read on). The top four seeds in each conference receive a bye and a guaranteed home game for the second round of the playoffs. The 11 and 12 seeds in each conference play each other at a pre-determined neutral site on Thursday and Friday night to open the playoffs (tell me that wouldn't be a ratings bonanza for the NFL), while seeds 5 through 10 (5-10, 6-9, 7-8) would play on the traditional staggered Saturday, Sunday schedule. This format would extend the playoffs by a week (check), and gives at least one extra home playoff game to any team that finishes in the top half of their conference (check). In the second round, the #1 seed hosts the winner of the 11-12 matchup, then the rest of the seeds go accordingly (assuming higher seeds win, it'll go 1-11, 2-7, 3-6 and 4-5). The top 4 teams would be rewarded with a bye, and the #1 seed will be further rewarded in the second round. As an added bonus, 12 spots per conference will encourage teams to play out the string, ensuring fan interest down the stretch, while the 11-12 seed playoff openers will allow the NFL to kick off the entire thing with two primetime games in pre-determined, favorable (read: profitable) locations. Sure, having 24 of 32 teams eligible for the post-season is touching on ridiculous, but this format sure beats tacking on two more regular season games that will only result in more injuries to players while devaluing the importance of each game.

3. A lockout probably needs to happen to fix the NBA. Owners are losing money, the product quality has plummeted due to the bevvy of atrocious contracts that were handed out, and players are getting too much (while doing too little) for things to be sustainable. Coming off the league's best ratings performance in the finals since the days of Air Jordan, team Stern has all the leverage it needs to demand a more owner favorable bargaining agreement on the players union. One of the untold stories of the free agent class of 2010 is that the ceiling on max contracts is likely to be lowered as part of the new agreement, which hopefully means better competitive balance throughout the league and less teams being held hostage to one or two bad decisions.

4. A lockout most certainly does not need to happen to fix the NFL. The NFL is the gold standard of the sporting world these days. Even the English Premier League copied the NFL's scheduling approach in showcasing a Sunday night and Monday night national game to go along with its full slate of Saturday afternoon matchups. The last thing the owners and players in the NFL should do is try to shake the golden goose to see if it will lay more eggs. Remember when baseball captured America's attention in the early 90's before the lockout? It took baseball years and a steroid infused home run chase to get the public back on its side. A lockout would be a very bad thing for the NFL, mostly because everyone would have no idea what to do without it. Can you imagine how screwed up everyone's fantasy leagues would be if no one knows the actual start date for the season? What would everyone at talk about once summer vacations are over and kids are back in school? The possibility is frightening.

5. The off-season realignment in the major college conferences further illustrates the notion that the point of college football is not to crown a national champion. The point of college football is, and has always been, the rivalries. There's no major American sport where rivalries are as embedded in the sporting culture, and maintaining that tradition was the single most important thing in preserving even after the realignment money grab. College football isn't about crowning a champion, it's about Michigan - Ohio State, Texas - Oklahoma, Alabama - Auburn, and all the other rivalries that every fan remembers forever. There's always going to be memorable games, miracle seasons and fantastic upsets. But the rivalry remains the heart and soul of college football, not who gets to hold up a crystal football at the end of the year.

6. Golf got a look at life without the golden goose and it's not pretty. Does anyone else thing golf will go back to being the niche sport it was before Tiger came into our lives? Like poker, bowling, and jai alai, once Tiger is out of the picture, golf could return to being a fringe sport that people will care about a few times a year rather than an event that draws worldwide television audiences week after week like it does now. Sports need stars to gain an audience beyond the hard core fanbase, and golf simply is not a sport that lends itself to stars winning consistently enough to establish that type of connection. Except when Tiger is playing.

7. We need to reallocate some NHL teams back to Canada. I was in Vancouver a couple of weeks before the Olympics started this year, and the only thing on anyone's mind there was hockey. From talking with people, you'd think the Olympics was a giant hockey tournament with a few other sports sprinkled in as window dressing. It's a bad sign when a league has as many teams in locations better suited for Arena Football (Tampa Bay, Phoenix, Florida, Carolina, Atlanta, Nashville) than it does in the country of the sport's birth (Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal and Calgary), where nightly hockey broadcasts are treated like Monday Night Football games. If the Blackhawks' post Stanley Cup roster purge taught us anything, it's that the NHL simply isn't set up to maintain top drawer rosters in top drawer cities. You can't tell me anyone in Nashville would really care if the team relocated to Winnipeg. How fun would an across-the-border rivalry be between the Windsor Lightning and Detroit Red Wings? With downsizing back en vogue, the NHL would do well to realign its priorities back to its most passionate fanbase.

8. MLS needs to change its scheduling format. The point of the Premier League copying the NFL's scheduling is to establish set times from week to week throughout the season so that you can rely on the sport being televised. Weekend afternoon games to capture the summer audience before football starts is a must, as well as a mid-week primetime game or two during the season (pick a day, Tuesday through Thursday, but whatever you do, stick with it). Right now the games are far too haphazard to maintain casual audience interest. Go ahead and look at the upcoming schedule on MLS' website. Other than the Saturday slate of games, the schedule appears haphazard. Fans need consistency, the MLS needs to establish this with their fanbase. And above all else, the MLS needs to host its championship game on a non-NFL Sunday. Until these things happen, it's going to be difficult for the league to draw the interest of the casual fan.

9. The World Cup is the world's biggest sporting event. You know that awe-inspiring feeling you get when you connect with something so much bigger than yourself, say when you look out at a massive city skyline at night or hike up to a view over the top of a hill, and realize just how small you really are in this world? I get the same feeling whenever the World Cup comes around. It's just an awe-inspiring event, all these countries meeting in one place to celebrate the simplest of life's pleasures, with their teams representing their native styles, language and passion. You don't find a passionate fanbase traveling to other world-wide events, the Olympics doesn't even come close. There are people who save up everything just for a shot to travel to the World Cup every four years. After being fortunate enough to experience one while living abroad, I understand why. It is a month long party, and it'll open up your eyes to countries and cultures we never knew existed. Brazil 2014 might just be the single best party our generation will ever get to experience.

10. Woman's basketball would be a more entertaining sport if the hoop were lowered. Basketball is a vertical game where the most athletic displays occur near the basket. The women in the WNBA are the world's most talented female basketball players, but there are rarely athletic confrontations at the basket because the basket is too high for them to occur on a regular basis. I understand the argument for maintaining basket heights for men and women, but woman's volleyball doesn't seem to suffer by playing with a lowered net. Olympic beach volleyball's popularity has to at least in part be due to the athletic battles at the net, right? Don't you immediately think of Kerry Walsh spiking the ball on someone when you think of that sport? Woman's basketball already plays with a smaller ball, would it be so harmful to lower the basket a few inches as well?

11. International sports coverage is only going to get better. It took over a decade to get English Premier League games properly televised to this country, and the result has been an unqualified success. Both ESPN and FSC are setting records in viewership for their televised matches, and early season games are netting higher ratings than they were for matchups shown over the last year. People love a quality product, and it's no surprise that audiences gravitate to the best quality any sport has to offer. It is not going to be too long until all the very best sporting leagues are televised here. Cricket (Indian Premier League, World Cup), rugby (Rugby Union, Rugby League and the World Cup), and table tennis (billions of Chinese can't be wrong) are just some of the sports that are bound to become part of our lives in the near future. Speaking of which, why isn't there an Anthony Bourdain of sports covering these events internationally and introducing them to our lives? Anyone know how to sign up for that gig?