If I Were President Of Sports
Happy Saturday TOC. As you know, from time to time I like to get a little talkative and give my opinions on things. This past week, I came across a couple of articles from the world of sports that have inspired a new round of my desire to preach. But I will try to keep this on the lighter side. I am going to simply list a series of changes I would make to the rulebooks of the various sports or new rules I would put in place. In the comments, I’d like to hear your suggestions for how you would improve the world of sports. I have a feeling at least a few of you are going to say “No games on Peacock.”
Back to the articles I came across this week, there was one that I agreed with and one that made me a little upset. The first one, the one I agreed with, pertained to the new world of NIL in college athletics; it has some quotes from recently retired GOAT Nick Saban where he makes even better points than I have made in my previous writings about the topic and just further solidified my opposition to the concept of paying college athletes. You can read that article here.
The other article I saw was about college fans court storming after their team’s victories. In this case, LSU was fined $100,000 when their student section came out to celebrate after the Tigers defeated a ranked Kentucky team. The fine is part of a new rule the SEC had passed that is designed to prevent these post-game fiestas in the name of player safety. In reading a few more articles on the subject, I have learned that four of the six major basketball conferences will fine schools for court-stormings. The Big Ten and ACC are the two major conferences that do not give out fines, though I would not be surprised if the Big Ten changes that soon in the aftermath of the recent Caitlin Clark incident at Ohio State.
So let me start my list of rules with this one. “It is completely legal for students to run onto the basketball court or football field after their team wins a game.” I don’t want to dismiss safety so it is fine if they want to try to enforce a short delay so the visiting team can get off the court/field and be protected. For me, this is about allowing college kids to be college kids. I don’t care for the arguments of acting like you’ve been there before or that it can only be for a “signature win”. I say, storm the court or field for every win. You’re in college. Go have a good time. Go celebrate your school. Jump up and down with hundreds of your classmates. Crowd around the team and shower them in your appreciation of their triumph. Enjoy the best years of your life. It always bothered me that Spartan Stadium did not permit us to run the field after a game when many other Big Ten stadiums did allow it. I’d add a line to this rule that all schools are required to configure the student sections of their arenas to allow safe and quick access to the playing surface. None of this is applicable for hockey.
Moving on, I am going to give an item or two for each of the major sports.
NBA:
Redefining what constitutes a shooting foul. They could even call this the “James Harden Rule” in dishonor of the most shameful example of someone abusing the way referees call games. I know the NBA has made changes to their rulebook in recent years to prevent the “rip-through” move from being called as a shooting foul. But the NBA needs to go further. In my opinion, a shooting foul needs to be limited to being truly in the act of shooting, meaning the player has already elevated with the ball and has his arms up in a shooting position. It should not be a shooting foul when someone gets hit on the arms but then takes another step and a half (or really two steps since travelling is so rarely called) and then takes off for a layup. That can be a foul, but not a shooting foul. A trip to the free throw line needs to be awarded only when a foul in the act of shooting has actually occurred; the interpretation of “continuation” has been egregiously exaggerated to the detriment of the game. Likewise, referees need to stop calling fouls when a jump shooter lands three feet in front of where he elevated from so he can have his foot make contact with the nearest defender in order to get a whistle.
The Elam Ending. For those of you unfamiliar with this concept, it is a way to end games where at some point in the fourth quarter, the game clock is turned off and a target score is installed based on the score of the leading team at that point. The NBA experimented with this in recent All-Star Games, and I would like to see this instituted for all games. The perfect quote I saw behind this idea was “Basketball games should end on a basket, not on a buzzer.” We all played basketball at recess or on our driveways after school. We never played with a clock; it was always “First to (insert score) wins.” Like the item above, this is about eliminating trips to the foul line, in this case due to intentional fouling. No one wants to see more free throws. This way, every game would feature a game winning shot.
NFL:
Reducing defensive holding calls and redefining what is defensive pass interference. I don’t think I am alone in saying that there are too many penalties being called in the NFL and that the trend over the last decade plus has been to help offenses by making it harder for defenders to actually, you know, defend. My thought is this. Abandon the whole “no contact after five yards” rule and replace it with “no grabbing the offensive player with a closed fist.” There needs to be more responsibility by the offensive skill position players to have the skill to get open. If some hand contact by the defender knocks them off balance, that’s on them. The only thing that should be illegal is the defender grabbing them and actually preventing them from running. But an arm around the waist or shoulder while the receiver makes a cut needs to be allowed. And in terms of pass interference, similarly, the targeted receiver needs to have the responsibility to make the catch. The defender should be allowed to slap at and impede the receiver’s arms from getting up to make the catch so long as he is not actually holding onto the receiver. The game needs to be allowed to be played physically and the skill positions need to be skilled.
MLB: (I need to mention that I do not follow baseball at all)
Standardization of baseball fields. An NFL field is 300 feet long by 160 feet wide. An NBA court is 94 feet by 50 feet. Conversely, MLB fields are all different. The depths of the straightaway centerfield fences range from 390 feet to 420 feet. The discrepancy of the distance to the foul poles is even greater, with some fields being more arched across the back wall and some being straighter, and some stadiums even have differences between their left and right poles. I think this makes any ability to keep records tarnished as some fields give the advantage more to home run hitters while others give the advantage to ground ball hitters and others still favor the pitchers. The whole thing is absurd. Booooo baseball.
NHL:
Nothing. We should all start being more like our Canadian neighbors and make this our favorite sport. From a viewing perspective, hockey really is the most fun. And the recent rule change to playing overtime at 3-on-3 made it even better. Keep it up, NHL!
Soccer:
Get rid of penalty kicks to decide games. I get it, after 90 minutes of regulation and an additional 30 minutes of overtime, a tied soccer match needs a way to decide a winner. But a penalty kick competition is the worst possible way to do this. It has nothing to do with the game. Unlike in hockey where penalty shots at least mimic the breakaways that occasionally occur in the course of a game, a player standing at the penalty spot and getting a free run at the ball while the goalie is forced to stay on the goal line until the ball is struck never, NEVER, happens in soccer. Here is my suggestion to replace the penalty kicks: Corner Kicks. Like PKs, the teams will alternate for five rounds. The offensive team gets the player taking the corner kick plus two other players waiting in the box; the defensive team has the goalie plus one other defender. The ball can not hit the ground prior to an offensive player striking it so it must be one-timed either by a header or a kick. If the offensive players are good enough to keep it in the air and pass from one to the other before taking the shot, then that play is still alive. But as soon as the goalie or defender can knock it down, the play is over. This would allow the winner to be determined by an actual soccer play.
That is it. Let’s hear your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree with my suggestions? What changes would you make to any of the sports? Feel free to be as serious or as ridiculous as you would like.
