Things You'd Change, Popular or Unpopular

[FrankCostanza]

Some random ones:

1. Sudden death basketball sounds exciting but can be flawed (entire game coming down to one basket, a free throw being the decider in SDOT). A fairer way is what the old National Basketball League (Canada) from the 1990s did. They had a first to seven (I believe) points rule. Score seven in OT and you're the winner. It has elements of both the traditional (5 min) OT and sudden death. Games don't end on one basket and once a team gets four or five points, the game is essentially sudden death at that point.

2. On the topic of OT, NHL should go to four on four after one 20 minute OT in the playoffs. Most games end in the first OT anyway, so this rule will only apply a few times a year. OT can be magic when it goes 3 or 4 OTs, but it can also be a pain in the ass for people who need to get up early the next morning and it screws with the TV partners as well. If games can end earlier (in an exciting fashion), but at the same time leaving the chance to end on the tradition five on five method, this is an idea worth considering.

3. Someone mentioned earlier that Aussie Rules is the most exciting "Football" in the world as it combines the best aspects of the rest of the footballs. I tend to agree with this. I would rank the footballs (based mostly on excitement and flow) like this: Aussie - Gaelic - Canadian - Rugby Union - American - Rugby League - Soccer.

4. Baseball parks work better for outdoor hockey than football stadiums. The current setup (rink setup somewhere beyond second base facing from 1st/right to 3rd/left is not ideal. The best setup would be along a baseline or even straight down the middle of the infield (home to 2nd), it may screw with mound but since the games are during the baseball offseason this shouldn't be an issue. If this was done ballparks would be far better than football stadiums as most (if not all) seats in a ballpark are geared to the infield, while in a football stadium they are not facing midfield (ie a seat on the 2 yard line is facing straight out at the 2 yard line) meaning people seated near the end have to cramp around to see the rink, while is a less of an issue (if not a non-issue) in ballparks.

5. Get rid of the charity point in hockey, just have straight wins and losses during the regular season and keep standings like baseball and basketball (W-L-PTC). This would force teams to play for the win as opposed to not to lose as you either win or lose none of this loser point garbage.

[Unocal]

The 1991 Redskins basically squeeze out 1 last title for a team loaded with geezers and oldies. They knew they were near the end, so they went all in with a team loaded with old guys.

I mean, the following year, they had no serious player losses and BARELY make the playoffs.

Then they fell off a cliff.

[Julius Seizure]

Basketball:

-I can't get interested in the NBA no matter how hard I've tried. Love keeping track of the logos/uniforms though.

Baseball:

-Reg. season needs to be waaay shorter, like 80-100 games, but expand the playoffs.

Hockey:

-I pretty much like the NHL the way it is

Soccer:

-I think the game clock should wind down to zero like other sports, with no extra time. Thus the clock should stop when the ball is out of bounds. If elimination matches are tied at the end of regulation, they should go straight to penalty shoot-outs.

Football:

-I'm all for expanding the NFL playoffs. 8 per conference & no byes, a-la NBA and NHL.

-They should expand the International Series to more cities, but do it in the preseason like they did in the 90s.

[DCarp1231]

Baseball:

Shorten the season 20-30 games

Make "bench clearings" a common thing (but not every night common) just like NHL has fights. No ejections. Adds to excitement factor

NFL:

Actually started really liking the new pro bowl format

Third place game maybe?

"World Cup" style (Regional) tournament in the off season after the draft

NFL Development League (16 teams, 2 NFL teams assigned to each team 1 NFC 1 AFC)

[ScoffingYayap]

MLB:

While I'm not totally against the playoff format, it still has a major flaw: Teams with better records don't always get into the playoffs (See 2012 Angels for most recent victim) I'd change the whole thing.

For each league, have 16 teams.

4 divisions each (North, South, East, West) of 4 teams each.

Each division winner makes it to October.

IF a 2nd place team has a better record than another division's 1st place team, they will face them in a one game playoff in the division champion's stadium. If the second place team (The Wildcard) wins, they go on and the division winner gets knocked out.

For instance; the Orioles have won the AL East with 91 wins, but the Tigers are second place in the AL North with 96 wins. Detroit will play Baltimore in Baltimore and the winner will advance.

If the 2nd AND 3rd place teams are better than another division's winner, the 2nd and 3rd place teams will play each other and then that winner will go on to face the other division's winner.

That way we have no more teams like the 2006 Cardinals who won 83 games but went on to win the World Series while a number of better teams just played golf in October.

Also, I enjoy Interleague play a lot, especially year-round. However it too is flawed.

Why can't they do what the NFL does? AL East plays NL East (Home and road) this year, then the AL East plays the NL Central next year. No more yearly "rivalry series." Subway series, I-70 series...they're played out and unbalanced.

[4_tattoos]

NBA should adopt the 3 years after high school graduation rule the NFL has for draft eligibility.

The NFL should adopt the overtime format the short lived UFL used. It was sort of a hybrid of sudden death & College overtime. It was a 15 minute overtime period where each team got at least one possession to score. Usual coin toss and kickoff to begin OT (no ball placed on the 25 yard line crap). If the score was still tied after each team had a possession, then it went in to sudden death mode. If the game was still tied after the end of OT then it would be a tie. Although none of the UFL's overtime games ended in a tie

[wonderbread]

Isn't that basically what the nfl has, the only difference being that if the first team scored a touchdown then the game was over.

[4_tattoos]

Basically, but the UFL's overtime eliminated the whole "we never got a chance to score" argument if a team just drove the ball down the field in that first OT possession for a touchdown.

In the UFL's overtime the other team would get a possession after the score (whether it be TD or FG) to attempt to even it up. If the score was still tied after each team had a possession, the next team to score wins the game.

*** It never happened in the UFL's existence, but I believe if the first possession of overtime resulted in a safety the game would be over. Assume that's always been the case with the NFL's sudden death overtime

[The_Admiral]

Make "bench clearings" a common thing (but not every night common) just like NHL has fights. No ejections. Adds to excitement factor

The NHL is finally phasing out fighting. Why would another sport take it up?

UNPOPULAR OPINION: I like shootouts and think they're really fun sometimes! Sometimes.

[Cosmic]

Make "bench clearings" a common thing (but not every night common) just like NHL has fights. No ejections. Adds to excitement factor

The NHL is finally phasing out fighting. Why would another sport take it up?

UNPOPULAR OPINION: I like shootouts and think they're really fun sometimes! Sometimes.

I think they should happen a little less often, but I still greatly prefer them to ties.

I can't help but laugh at all these people who lately are jumping on this 3-on-3 bandwagon as a way to avoid the "disgrace" of a shootout result. Yeah... 'cause 3-on-3 ain't a circus unto itself. At least a penalty shot and breakaways are things that happen. How often have we ever seen 3-on-3 NHL hockey? Probably not since the coincidental penalties rule was changed to its current form.

[zpqmaowl]

[Unocal]

Unpopular opinion: I like shootouts and I never want to see tie games again.

The same people who complained TIES SUCKS, THEY DON'T WANT TO WIN now suddenly want them back?

What's so great about a tie, anyway? Fans hated them. What exactly is so great about a tie game that you want to get rid of the shootout?

Personally, I'd tweak things to make the shootout a last-ditch idea: 5 minutes of 4-on-4, 5 minutes of 3-on-3, THEN the shootout if nothing's settled.

[Unocal]

The argument I always heard against shootout was IT'S A TEAM GAME, NOT A SKILLS COMPETITION!

Well, you know what? That team game SUCKED. And god help us that hockey games have some SKILL, something that went away in the late 90s and early 2000s, but hey the purists at least had their precious team games with NO skill and sucky endings. It's a team game, allright- a lousy and unwatchable team game.

We had it their way- and it sucked.

[Cosmic]

OK, I forgot that we can start from 4-on-4 now in order to get to 3-on-3. Loosening the jar lid. 3-on-3 is still at least as much of a joke as a shootout.

[Sanic]

More interleague games. That is all.

[ElwoodCuse]

The same people who complained TIES SUCKS, THEY DON'T WANT TO WIN now suddenly want them back?

What's so great about a tie, anyway? Fans hated them.

None of this is true. Fans didn't care about ties. The NHL brought in the shootout to appeal to non-fans.

[walby2]

A few of mine:

-NHL schedule is way too long and makes individual games seem insignificant. Move to a 60 game schedule and wrap up the SC playoffs by mid May at the latest. (Could say the same about MLB but the interminable schedule seems to be part of that game's culture.)

-Apart from the Spanish-speaking areas close to the Mexican border, soccer culture in North America feels ridiculously contrived. Typical Toronto soccer fan strikes me as an effete hipster who studied for a term in Leicester and now thinks he's European.

-Basketball is an exciting sport but it really does feel like the whole game is a warmup for the last 3 minutes, when it actually gets decided.

-Any city that bids for the World Cup or Olympics is a sucker. FIFA and the IOC have created licences to steal from the public purse. That countries like South Africa and Brazil spent billions on new stadiums while so many people live in crime and squalor is unconscionable. Just use the existing stadiums FFS, why does it have to be all new or totally renovated ones.

[AnPheitseog]

MLB:

While I'm not totally against the playoff format, it still has a major flaw: Teams with better records don't always get into the playoffs (See 2012 Angels for most recent victim) I'd change the whole thing.

For each league, have 16 teams.

4 divisions each (North, South, East, West) of 4 teams each.

Each division winner makes it to October.

IF a 2nd place team has a better record than another division's 1st place team, they will face them in a one game playoff in the division champion's stadium. If the second place team (The Wildcard) wins, they go on and the division winner gets knocked out.

For instance; the Orioles have won the AL East with 91 wins, but the Tigers are second place in the AL North with 96 wins. Detroit will play Baltimore in Baltimore and the winner will advance.

If the 2nd AND 3rd place teams are better than another division's winner, the 2nd and 3rd place teams will play each other and then that winner will go on to face the other division's winner.

That way we have no more teams like the 2006 Cardinals who won 83 games but went on to win the World Series while a number of better teams just played golf in October.

Also, I enjoy Interleague play a lot, especially year-round. However it too is flawed.

Why can't they do what the NFL does? AL East plays NL East (Home and road) this year, then the AL East plays the NL Central next year. No more yearly "rivalry series." Subway series, I-70 series...they're played out and unbalanced.

A: Baseball has always been about winning your division/league(before they made divisions) as being the most important thing, and if you cant win your divison you dont deserve being in the playoffs.

B: interleague play is stupid

B.2 That's they way they do interleague play now, NL Central plays AL West, East, Central and repeat

[Cosmic]

-Any city that bids for the World Cup or Olympics is a sucker. FIFA and the IOC have created licences to steal from the public purse. That countries like South Africa and Brazil spent billions on new stadiums while so many people live in crime and squalor is unconscionable. Just use the existing stadiums FFS, why does it have to be all new or totally renovated ones.

I keep waiting for the bubble to burst there. The London Olympics cost about $15 BILLION USD. You could build (just for example) a theme park complex that would rival Walt Disney World with $15 billion. Then you'd be getting tourists for years and years without the same security threats, generally useless stadiums and upending of daily life for your citizens.

[Sanic]

I, for one would add a chromified/gold coloured NHL collar patch of the team who won the Cup the previous year. For example, the Kings would have "the patch" on the collar. It would then pass on to the next team who wins the Cup, unless it's the defending champs, who would retain the patch if they were to win again.