Changes to sports

[ilpt4u]

Yes to Seattle NBA team, to Montreal MLB team, to St. Louis NFL team. All Big Four leagues and MLS should have at least 40 teams.

What would be the 2nd team you would add for the NBA, MLB and NFL? Because you have to have an even number of teams.

Vegas for NBA. Kansas City in the running, tho
Charlotte for MLB
San Diego for NFL

[Mapmikey]

Yes to Seattle NBA team, to Montreal MLB team, to St. Louis NFL team. All Big Four leagues and MLS should have at least 40 teams.

What would be the 2nd team you would add for the NBA, MLB and NFL? Because you have to have an even number of teams.

The NFL had 31 teams 1999-2001

The NBA and MLB don't matter as much because lots of days some teams have the night off.  Drawback would be that on days where every team should be playing, one wouldn't be.

[triplemultiplex]

No overtimes or extra innings in any sport.  In the event of a tie, the visiting coach spins a wheel to decide which other sport the teams will play to determine the winner.
Game knotted after 9 innings?  Get ready to lace 'em up boys, cuz Coach just spun "hockey" on the wheel!
Let's see Joe Burrow's jump shot!
And everyone would pay to see a WNBA game decided on the gridiron.

[webny99]

Football
NFL regular season would be expanded to 25 games, beginning in early August and ending in late February. There would be 16-team playoffs without reseeding and Super Bowl in late March.

25 games is too many. I would prefer an even number of games, so I'd be OK with either 18 or 20, but no more than that (16 games was fine too, but there's no way the NFL would ever reduce the number of games).

I've actually thought a little bit about whether 20 games would work. You could add the last two same-place finishers that each team isn't already playing to get to 19 games, and the 20th game (or 18th game, if you leave out my previous suggestion) could be a rivalry game that loosely parallels college. It would preferably be a non-division team, so you could have matchups of teams that are near each other but don't play every year, such as Bills-Steelers or Eagles-Ravens, or it could fluctuate year to year to include current rivalries like Chiefs-Bengals (which could mean they play twice a season - all the better!)

I don't think the Super Bowl should be any later than it is already, plus "January=playoffs; February=Super Bowl" is pretty much engrained in the fabric of the NFL, so the season would instead start sometime in August, with two byes per team. For a 22-week season, each team would have their first bye in weeks 6-9 and their second bye in weeks 14-17.

[CoreySamson]

My ideas for basketball:

- Whenever one team gets a bonus, instead of shooting two free throws on a shooting foul, they get one point automatically and one free throw attempt. On any other kind of foul, they shoot two free throws (not one-and-one). On a double bonus, any foul received automatically nets a point and a free throw attempt, but a shooting foul gives the free point plus two 'one-and-one' free throw attempts.
For three pointers, the one point would be given and two free throw attempts would be awarded to the fouled team. There would be no changes if the ball went in on the shot. This would hopefully cut down on Hack-A-Shaq and excessive fouling at the end of the game.

- Remove the defensive three-second violation. This should make playing defense an actual aspect of the game again.

- Make women's and men's college basketball have the same amount of time periods. I don't care if it's four quarters or two halves, but make them the same across both genders.

[Henry]

Yes to Seattle NBA team, to Montreal MLB team, to St. Louis NFL team. All Big Four leagues and MLS should have at least 40 teams.

What would be the 2nd team you would add for the NBA, MLB and NFL? Because you have to have an even number of teams.

Vegas for NBA. Kansas City in the running, tho
Charlotte for MLB
San Diego for NFL

After the stadium debacles in the former home cities of the now-L.A. teams, I doubt either one will welcome the NFL back again. In fact, "Kroenke sucks" is the most-often heard refrain in St. Louis, so much that you'll even hear it at Blues and Cardinals games too.

But if the league were to expand (which is extremely unlikely), I'd love to see teams in Toronto and San Antonio.

Seattle and Las Vegas are great choices for NBA cities, with Kansas City, Louisville and Norfolk/Virginia Beach being good fits as well.

MLB is probably going to expand to Nashville and Portland, but I like Charlotte and Montreal too. If the A's don't move to Las Vegas, I can see that city get its own team anyway; it's a wait-and-see for the time being.

[Scott5114]

Every sport should have a way for both teams to lose (not tie, but actually lose like a double overbid on The Price Is Right, where nobody gets anything). This would be useful to give you something to root for when two teams you hate play each other.

[WillWeaverRVA]

- Make women's and men's college basketball have the same amount of time periods. I don't care if it's four quarters or two halves, but make them the same across both genders.

I would be perfectly fine with men's and women's college basketball having four 10-minute quarters. Pretty much every other code of basketball uses quarters, and the women's game honestly flows better than the men's game does.

[MikeTheActuary]

I don't see a need to expand the major sports leagues.

I could, however, get behind introducing the concepts of promotion and relegation to American sports.

[ilpt4u]

- Make women's and men's college basketball have the same amount of time periods. I don't care if it's four quarters or two halves, but make them the same across both genders.

I would be perfectly fine with men's and women's college basketball having four 10-minute quarters. Pretty much every other code of basketball uses quarters, and the women's game honestly flows better than the men's game does.

TV contracts is why the NCAA Men's game hasn't adopted Quarters

The TV TOs every 4 minutes of Regulation do not translate to 10 min quarters very well, but fit very neatly in 20 min halves

[Roadgeekteen]

Every sport should have a way for both teams to lose (not tie, but actually lose like a double overbid on The Price Is Right, where nobody gets anything). This would be useful to give you something to root for when two teams you hate play each other.

How would that work in Football or Basketball?

[jeffandnicole]

No overtimes or extra innings in any sport.  In the event of a tie, the visiting coach spins a wheel to decide which other sport the teams will play to determine the winner.
Game knotted after 9 innings?  Get ready to lace 'em up boys, cuz Coach just spun "hockey" on the wheel!
Let's see Joe Burrow's jump shot!
And everyone would pay to see a WNBA game decided on the gridiron.

Uh oh, July baseball just spun cross-country skiing. This game's gonna take a while...

[Roadgeekteen]

No overtimes or extra innings in any sport.  In the event of a tie, the visiting coach spins a wheel to decide which other sport the teams will play to determine the winner.
Game knotted after 9 innings?  Get ready to lace 'em up boys, cuz Coach just spun "hockey" on the wheel!
Let's see Joe Burrow's jump shot!
And everyone would pay to see a WNBA game decided on the gridiron.

Uh oh, July baseball just spun cross-country skiing. This game's gonna take a while...

Just go to Souky. Plenty of skiing there.

[KCRoadFan]

Yes to Seattle NBA team, to Montreal MLB team, to St. Louis NFL team. All Big Four leagues and MLS should have at least 40 teams.

What would be the 2nd team you would add for the NBA, MLB and NFL? Because you have to have an even number of teams.

Vegas for NBA. Kansas City in the running, tho
Charlotte for MLB
San Diego for NFL

I would love an NBA team here in KC!

[Scott5114]

Every sport should have a way for both teams to lose (not tie, but actually lose like a double overbid on The Price Is Right, where nobody gets anything). This would be useful to give you something to root for when two teams you hate play each other.

How would that work in Football or Basketball?

I dunno, you watch sports more than me, you figure it out.

[amroad17]

Football
NFL regular season would be expanded to 25 games, beginning in early August and ending in late February. There would be 16-team playoffs without reseeding and Super Bowl in late March.

Sure hope not.

The max games should be 18--no more (and even that is pushing it, I have thought 16 was enough).  If there was a 25 game season, the chances are that an 11-14 or 12-13 team may win the Super Bowl if they are the team least decimated by injuries.  More than likely one of the divisions will have a team win it with a losing record.

I know the NFL is popular, but 7 months of the season will have the possibility of an overload of football.  Then there would be less time for player movement (trades, free agency), for college player evaluations, for the draft, and for practice.

Speaking of practice, with the collective bargaining agreements recently approved, the times spent for physical practice have decreased.  Film/videotape and playbook study have increased because of the newer technology in place now than it was in the 1960's-1980's.  However, it seems to me that more injuries have occurred with the lessened practice time.  Yes, some are due to some of the fields that are played on (Fieldturf) which seem to cause many knee injuries (ACL, MCL tears), however, with the lessened physical contact in practice, it seems that many players aren't ready for a hit during a game.  I also know that this is anecdotal and would have to look up injury reports now verses then to see if my opinion is correct or not.  What do some of you other members think about this?

As far as games played, let me use the Buffalo Bills of 1990-93 as an example of this take.  Those are the years they went to four straight Super Bowls, unfortunately losing all four of them.  So, they played 16 regular season games, either 2 or 3 conference playoff games, and then the Super Bowl.  So, they would play 19 or 20 games over the course of those seasons.  After four years, with the assumption that most of the team stayed intact, they have played enough games for five seasons.  After these seasons, they  were not the dominant team in the AFC East even though they still had seasons in which they made the playoffs.  The point is the team aged five years in four years.  If there was a 25-game season, this would be the equivalent of 1.5 seasons compared to now.  If the schedule was increased to that, there aren't going to be many players having a 12-year career, it would probably be closer to an 8-year career.  And if one team continually made the playoffs, the team would age two years for every one. 

No, the season is long enough, 16 was good enough, however, with the lure of $$$,$$$,$$$,$$$, it appears that the NFL will see an 18-game season soon.  Not like it hasn't been done before.  The CFL has played 18-game seasons, the USFL had 18-game seasons, and the WFL had a 20-game season in 1974.  Even with an 18-game season the USFL had, there were only five accomplishments that would have broken the then-NFL records:  Points scored season, 618-Houston Gamblers 1984; Completed passes season, 370- Jim Kelly, Houston Gamblers 1984; Yards passing season, 5,219-Jim Kelly, Houston Gamblers 1984; Receptions season, 115-Richard Johnson, Houston Gamblers 1984; Yards rushing season, 2,411-Herschel Walker, New Jersey Generals 1985.

[interstatefan990]

This would be useful to give you something to root for when two teams you hate play each other.

I mean, if you hate both teams, are you even going to be watching the game in the first place, unless it's some kind of final?

[Scott5114]

This would be useful to give you something to root for when two teams you hate play each other.

I mean, if you hate both teams, are you even going to be watching the game in the first place, unless it's some kind of final?

Sometimes you have to be somewhere (family event, work, Oklahoma) and someone has a game on.

[interstatefan990]

This would be useful to give you something to root for when two teams you hate play each other.

I mean, if you hate both teams, are you even going to be watching the game in the first place, unless it's some kind of final?

Sometimes you have to be somewhere (family event, work, Oklahoma) and someone has a game on.

True, I didn't think about that. That's usually when I pick a team at random or based on some unrelated factor and "root" for them just for kicks. I dislike the Philadelphia 76ers, but if they played against the Minnesota Timberwolves, I'd go with the 76ers simply because they're fellow Northeasterners.

[amroad17]

Yes to Seattle NBA team, to Montreal MLB team, to St. Louis NFL team. All Big Four leagues and MLS should have at least 40 teams.

What would be the 2nd team you would add for the NBA, MLB and NFL? Because you have to have an even number of teams.

Vegas for NBA. Kansas City in the running, tho
Charlotte for MLB
San Diego for NFL

I would love an NBA team here in KC!

Kansas City had an NBA team from 1972-85.  First known as the Kansas City-Omaha Kings until 1975 when they started playing their home games at the Kemper Arena and then became the Kansas City Kings.  They were a decent team, making the playoffs for some of the years there.  They also had some good players, most notably Nate "Tiny" Archibald, a (listed) 6'1'' point guard (probably closer to 5'11'') who was the first player in NBA history to lead the league in scoring (34.0 ppg) and assists (11.4 apg) in the same season (1972-73).  Poor attendance (only one season with average attendance over 10,000 fans) and an issue with the Kemper Arena roof one season forced a sale of the team and a move to Sacramento.

That was interesting in the 1970's and early 1980's to have teams called the Kings and the Royals in the same city.

[jp the roadgeek]

That was interesting in the 1970's and early 1980's to have teams called the Kings and the Royals in the same city.

Even more interesting is that the Kings franchise was known as the Royals prior to moving to Kansas City during their days in Cincinnati and before that, Rochester.  They voluntarily changed the name to avoid confusion with the baseball franchise because of the KC/Omaha split affiliation.  So they might have had the baseball and basketball Royals (like it's cross-state sibling with the baseball and football Cardinals at the time) had they skipped the Omaha part.

[amroad17]

Since many replies are being posted in this topic, I will address some of the others here.

If the NBA went to 32 teams, the front runners would be Seattle and Las Vegas.  The next tier would be Kansas City, Louisville, and St. Louis.  Unfortunately, Norfolk/Virginia Beach would not be in this, unless this was an ABA-like team as mentioned above.  They had the Squires in the ABA from 1970-76, and they did not draw well, did not play well (especially after trading/selling Julius Erving to the New York Nets and selling George Gervin to the San Antonio Spurs resulting in 15-69 and 15-68 seasons the last two years the ABA was in existence), and did not have the financial resources needed to run a basketball team.  I lived there for 22 years and it seemed that the area in the 1960's through the early 1990's was in four different sections: Norfolk and Virginia Beach was one, Portsmouth and Chesapeake was another, the Peninsula (Newport News and Hampton) was another, and Suffolk was considered country belonging with Isle of Wight County and Southampton County.  Since 1994, it seems the area has become one, however, I don't know if the residents would be into having an NBA team nor if they would want to support one.  Perhaps sprjus4 could shed some light on this.

Louisville had the Kentucky Colonels, one of the three teams (the others being the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Rockets/Nuggets) that played in the same city every year in the ABA's nine year existence.  They drew well, had some good players (Hall of Famers Artis Gilmore and Dan Issel and shooting guard Louie Dampier), and won one championship (1975).  The only reason they did not enter the NBA in 1976 is that the Chicago Bulls wanted Artis Gilmore, a 7'2" center--the best in ABA history, and would negate any plan that would allow the Colonels into the NBA.  So, the owner, John Y. Brown, accepted a $3 million buyout to fold the team.

St. Louis had an NBA team (the Hawks in the 1950's through the late 1960's when they moved to Atlanta) then had an ABA team (Spirits of St. Louis) from 1974-76.  The ABA team was a remnant from the Carolina Cougars team.  The ABA team did not draw well, however, they had the most characters of any team in ABA history, and a rookie radio announcer by the name of Bob Costas.  There is an ESPN 30 for 30 detailing that team called "Free Spirits".  When the Kansas City Kings played some games in St. Louis in the early 1980's, they drew well, so there could be some hope there.

I believe that any of our North American professional sports leagues should be capped at 32 teams.  Maybe having second- and third-tier teams may be the wave of the future.  It could work, even though it would take getting used to by our American fans.

As an aside, concerning the thought of two teams playing each other and both losing (snicker, snicker, ), maybe saying that if the over/under is 51 and the score of the game is under that, then both teams lose ( ).  It shouldn't change the over/under betting or point spread betting, just the records of the teams.  (Crazy thought intended  )

Yes, jp the roadgeek, that is true.  Maybe they should have kept the Royals name.  You could hear sports announcers saying the Kansas City Baseball Royals or the Kansas City Basketball Royals like they used to have to differentiate between the New York Football Giants and the New York Baseball Giants.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Basketball
Fouling a player to gain an advantage, especially at the end of the game, would somehow be made unfeasible.

Elam Ending.

I'm kind of iffy on the Elam Ending. I've watched plenty of TBT games and it's kind of a buzzkill when a game ends on a made free throw. Unfortunately there really isn't much of a way to fix that, though tweaks have been made.

That being said, the Elam Ending *does* do a good job of generating excitement when it works, and the NBA G League has been using it for overtime this season and has had a few exciting finishes because of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ho7blVhU4

[hotdogPi]

While I'm generally a fan of "team most recently ahead wins" in sports that aren't in the single digits, basketball scores frequently enough that "continue playing until the score is no longer tied" also works. While the team that scored to tie the game is at a disadvantage because the other team has the ball, this isn't a problem because "team most recently ahead wins" would have that same team automatically lose. (To clarify, I'm fine either way.)



Here is my proposal for a 60-team league where 20 are in Tier 1 and 40 are in Tier 2. The cities are just listed as we have no idea which ones belong in which tier until they play. This isn't for a particular sport but rather in general. Some of the teams (e.g. Minnesota) could be named after the entire state rather than the city.

Seattle
Portland
San Francisco
San Jose
Sacramento
Fresno
Los Angeles
Orange County
San Diego
Phoenix
Las Vegas
Salt Lake City
Boise
Denver
Albuquerque
El Paso
Brownsville
San Antonio
Austin
Houston
DFW
Oklahoma City
Northwest Arkansas
Kansas City
Omaha (possibly named Iowa and just across the border for a larger market)
Minneapolis
Milwaukee
Chicago, northern half
Chicago, southern half
St. Louis
Memphis
Nashville
New Orleans
Birmingham
Atlanta
Jacksonville
Tampa
Orlando
Miami
Columbia (Upstate SC is too close to Charlotte)
Charlotte
Raleigh or halfway between Raleigh and Greensboro
Louisville
Indianapolis
Grand Rapids
Detroit
Cincinnati
Columbus
Cleveland
Pittsburgh
Buffalo
Virginia Beach
DC
Baltimore
Philadelphia
NYC-area New Jersey (first of three NYC-area teams)
Western Long Island
Bronx or Westchester County
Hartford
Boston

[mgk920]

Adding new teams ('expansion') is very simple and easy in a promotion and relegation system - you join at the very lowest level and 'promote' every year afterwards (based solely on your team's game play performance).  After a few seasons, your new team is then playing at their proper strength level.  New strength level divisions are also added as the number of teams warrants.  Financially weak teams can also easily 'fold' and are then replaced with further needed promotions.

Mike