Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on May 6, 2014 13:34:08 GMT -5
Hard salary cap in the NBA would do wonders to create the parity that is desperately needed. I'm sick of seeing the same damn teams contend each and every year because they go well into the luxury tax to stack their rosters. With a hard cap we would see the premium talent dispersed more evenly throughout the league. I've posted about this in the NBA thread before, but I really think Vivek Ranadive might have something with the "V Plan". That has some benefits, but for the draft purposes it's a little bit problematic (especially since teams would just tank the first half of the season and rise from there- it'd give them momentum for the playoffs, but is still a problem.) The option I'd use for both sides to help a little more: Part I: There's been a theory for draft purposes going around recently where the draft order gets determined based on a team's won-loss record after they were mathematically eliminated from the postseason to eliminate tanking. Instead, I'd go further: The draft order/lottery picks get determined based on a team's won-loss record after the FIRST team in the league gets mathematically eliminated from the postseason. That way, there's a benefit to keep fighting for as long as possible- a team that keeps clawing and gets eliminated at the end of the season has more benefits than a team that tried collapsing to tank their way to the lottery. Part II: Instead of a full tournament, I'd change it to the Lucha de Apuestas' series at the end of each season: At the end of the season- if a non-playoff team has a better record (no ties) than a team in the opposing conference that makes the playoffs, then they receive the opportunity to challenge that team to a one game, winner-take-all, Playoff Spot vs. Lottery Position match (so for this year: Phoenix could have challenged Brooklyn, Washington, Charlotte, or Atlanta- and Minnesota could have challenged Atlanta.) If the challenging team wins, they receive the team's playoff spot and go on as normal. If the playoff team wins, then the team that challenged them must swap first-round picks with them, putting the challenger out of the lottery and putting the playoff team "in" the lottery.
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fw91
Patti Mayonnaise
FAN Idol All-Star: FAN Idol Season X and *Gavel* 2x Judges' Throwdown winner
Posts: 38,560
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Post by fw91 on May 6, 2014 13:34:56 GMT -5
No more eastern and western conferences and have American/national league type systems for all leagues
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Push R Truth
Patti Mayonnaise
Unique and Special Snowflake, and a pants-less heathen.
Perpetually Constipated
Posts: 39,219
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Post by Push R Truth on May 6, 2014 13:38:17 GMT -5
MLB: gets to use metal bats. 20 second pitch timer starting from when the batter enters the box. The batter has 10 seconds after a pitch to re-enter the box. Once the 10 seconds is up a pitcher can throw regardless of where the batter is. Teams get X number of timeouts a game.
NFL: Defense gets to celebrate all they want after a big play but if the offense snaps the ball and you are still offside from celebrating, the offense gets First and Goal on the 1 yard line. If the home team gets shutout they have to refund the cost of the tickets to all ticketholders. Extra Points are 30 yard kicks. Fights between 2 players are allowed to play out. The fight ends when a helmet comes off or a player submits. Facemask grabbing is not allowed.
NBA: A ref can call a Flop. At the next stoppage of play, the refs can go review the "flop". There are 3 results. Result 1: Legit. No penalty. The Player is given a nice pat on the butt for not being a pussy. (Try to give the player the benefit of the doubt) Result 2: Flop. Results in a Flagrant 1 being called on the Flopper. The other team gets 2 shots and the ball. (Results from getting a small tap and acting like a grenade went off) Result 3: Major Flop. Results in a Flagrant 2 being called on the actor. Other team gets 2 shots, the ball and the flopper is ejected. ( This is the '2 seconds after I felt the wind I fell to the ground grabbing my pancreas') I honestly believe this would solve the problem in about 2 weeks.
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Post by Hit Girl on May 6, 2014 13:53:24 GMT -5
I'd make loads of changes to football, but it would require me posting a huge essay
So I'll only offer one suggestion, that video replays should be available to referees, either via in-stadium video screens, or a video referee behind the scenes
The goal-line technology has been a success. It was overdue. It'll end all possible mistakes over goal/no-goals at the World Cup
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Toxik916
Hank Scorpio
Sacramento Proud
Posts: 6,207
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Post by Toxik916 on May 6, 2014 14:24:51 GMT -5
Oh I'd also add a 4 point field goal in the NFL. Any field goal 56 yards or longer should be rewarded with an extra point for difficulty.
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Dragonfly
Samurai Cop
...is no Barry Windham.
Posts: 2,480
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Post by Dragonfly on May 6, 2014 14:34:05 GMT -5
Baseball: Dissolve the current major/minor league structure and replace it with a soccer-style promotion and relegation system.
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Post by Hit Girl on May 6, 2014 14:34:37 GMT -5
I'd end all five set matches on the ATP tour.
Three is enough, even in Grand Slams. Extends careers and makes for better entertainment
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mizerable
Fry's dog Seymour
You're the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest.
Posts: 23,475
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Post by mizerable on May 6, 2014 14:40:56 GMT -5
The Jazz would go back to New Orleans The Raptors would go to Utah The Grizzlies would go to Toronto The Kings would go to Kansas City The Memphis team would become something Memphis based The Thunder would become the Outlaws The Pelicans would cease to exist
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Post by Red Impact on May 6, 2014 14:41:17 GMT -5
Hard salary cap in the NBA would do wonders to create the parity that is desperately needed. I'm sick of seeing the same damn teams contend each and every year because they go well into the luxury tax to stack their rosters. With a hard cap we would see the premium talent dispersed more evenly throughout the league. I've posted about this in the NBA thread before, but I really think Vivek Ranadive might have something with the "V Plan". I disagree with the idea that the NBA draft format needs to change drastically. They already address tanking with the lottery system, given so few of the worst teams actually get the #1 pick anymore, and the wheel format, aside from being needlessly complicated, will just make bad teams in small markets worse for a longer period of time. And if you want to increase parity in basketball, about the only way to do it is to put more players on the court. The nature of the game itself is what limits parity more than anything else, and any team in a big market is going to have an advantage just do to the increased endorsement opportunities. It's not that a hard salary cap is a bad thing, I just don't think it'd increase parity as much as people think. That said, the NBA has a huge ref problem and there needs to be bigger punishment for refs who give players star treatment.
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Reflecto
Hank Scorpio
The Sorceress' Knight
Posts: 6,847
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Post by Reflecto on May 6, 2014 17:14:01 GMT -5
Hard salary cap in the NBA would do wonders to create the parity that is desperately needed. I'm sick of seeing the same damn teams contend each and every year because they go well into the luxury tax to stack their rosters. With a hard cap we would see the premium talent dispersed more evenly throughout the league. I've posted about this in the NBA thread before, but I really think Vivek Ranadive might have something with the "V Plan". I disagree with the idea that the NBA draft format needs to change drastically. They already address tanking with the lottery system, given so few of the worst teams actually get the #1 pick anymore, and the wheel format, aside from being needlessly complicated, will just make bad teams in small markets worse for a longer period of time. And if you want to increase parity in basketball, about the only way to do it is to put more players on the court. The nature of the game itself is what limits parity more than anything else, and any team in a big market is going to have an advantage just do to the increased endorsement opportunities. It's not that a hard salary cap is a bad thing, I just don't think it'd increase parity as much as people think. That said, the NBA has a huge ref problem and there needs to be bigger punishment for refs who give players star treatment. Good points- which reminded me of the other big thing I'd add for the NBA for this: NBA: Institutes a "Franchise Player" option that the NFL/MLS have. Every team gets to institute one player on their franchise that becomes the team's "franchise player", and that player is considered not part of the team's salary cap (so they can be paid higher than the max contract, for more years than the max contract, or for things the salary cap won't offer them). In exchange, though, the player gets an immediate, full no-trade clause on their side (they want to be paid like a franchise player, they have to BE a franchise player), and for the team itself, if they want to take the franchise tag off of a player, then that player immediately becomes a free agent at the end of the season (so a team has to think exactly about who the team's alpha dog is before enforcing it.)
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BearDogg-X
Vegeta
Still lurking in the shadows....
Posts: 9,382
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Post by BearDogg-X on May 6, 2014 17:22:00 GMT -5
MLB: add another wild card to each league and make it like the NFL playoffs(top 2 division champs get byes, 3rd division champ plays 3rd wild card, 1st round(don't know if it would be best of 3 or a soccer-style 2 game home-and-home series), 2nd round is best of 5 starting at top seeds' ballparks, LCS & World Series stay best of 7), hard salary cap like NFL's
NFL: make it where if the wild card team has a better record than a division champion, the wild card team gets to host instead(top 2 division champs still get byes and division champs still guaranteed a playoff berth, but the 3 through 6 seeds get re-seeded).
Also, add a modified version of the CFL's single point(team gets a point if a kickoff, punt, or missed FG goes through or into end zone and isn't returned out of end zone; for NFL, limit it to punts and missed FGs longer than 45 yards if FG wasn't blocked/deflected by opposing team).
And either change overtime back the way it was or go with the Arena Football League overtime(both teams guaranteed one possession regardless of if FG or TD was scored, if still tied, next score wins).
College football: Change their overtime rules as well. Either go with the Arena Football OT or move the start line to the 50 yard line and make the teams earn the FG.
Also make the hashmarks like the NFL's.
NBA: Add the CFL crossover rule(if team in one conference finishes with a better record than a playoff team in other conference, that team crosses over into other conference), hard salary cap
NASCAR: Sprint Cup: Do away with the Chase, get rid of cookie cutter tracks like Kansas, add some more variety to the schedule(more road courses, more short tracks), bring back some tracks they've left(Rockingham), give Darlington back its 2nd Sprint Cup race and put the Southern 500 back on Labor Day weekend
Nationwide Series/Camping World Truck Series: Limit number of Sprint Cup drivers running every week, add more tracks(maybe run tracks that Sprint Cup left)
Indycar: Add more ovals to at least have an even number of ovals and road/street courses.
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kevin
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 7,491
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Post by kevin on May 6, 2014 18:56:16 GMT -5
I have two ideas.
NBA Every team plays each other twice in the regular season one home and and one away game. Best 16 records get in seeded 1-16 solely by record. This would fix the majority of the NBA's problems.
MLB get rid of the one game playoff make it best of three so things like the worst infield fly rule ever made do not destroy an entire playoff series.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2014 19:01:45 GMT -5
MLB is my big one, so here goes:
*SEPARATE THE LEAGUES MORE* Part of the allure, at least to me, of Major League Baseball is that the National League and American League are very different, even playing under different rules. I'm absolutely baffled whenever I hear MLB talking heads saying they want each league to be the same in all ways, like the ultra-vanilla NFL is. Instead, I say go back to separating them more than they are now.
Step one: Eliminate Interleague play. If this means expanding to add another team to each league (16 each), then so be it. Step two: Give power back to the office of League President, with each league being able to make their own rules for playoff formats, tiebreakers, etc. Step three: Go back to having different umpires in each league. Each league evolved differently in the old days due to umpires wearing different gear that gave them different strike zones; the NL became a "power pitcher" league, the AL a "finesse" league. Not saying it has to go that way, necessarily, but they should remain as separate as possible. Step four: With all of this accomplished, get rid of the World Series home field advantage reward for winning the All Star Game.
To me, this accomplishes something I think baseball should have that can make it more distinguishable from the other leagues: that being a fan of a team in one league would likely make you a fan of the entire league when things like the All Star Game or World Series happen. By creating distinct identities for each league it ups or creates a rivalry where there might not have been one before. The All Star Game used to be a big deal just in terms of pride for each league; recapturing that would be huge. Plus, I selfishly get to protect the NL from ever adopting the DH.
It'd also recreate the old atmosphere where players were less likely to change leagues over the course of their careers; you'd have more "NL players" and "AL players" around, which also builds the identity, and ups the drama when there's an All Star Game or, potentially, a World Series where a NL pitcher like, say, Clayton Kershaw gets to finally face an AL player like Mike Trout. Due to the layout today, it's just old hat already.
*REBALANCE THE SCHEDULE* I'm actually cool with having teams play opponents from their own division more than others; there's travel to consider, plus if you're going to have divisions, and thus division champs, it should be incumbent on a would-be division champ to outplay their most direct competition.
That said, 19 freaking games against your own division opponents and 6 against the rest of the league is nuts to me. Just rebalance it a bit; doesn't even have to be that much, maybe bring it down to 13-15 games against divisional opponents, 19 is too damned much.
With that thought in mind...
*CONSIDER REALIGNMENT* If the league has to expand to 32 teams to make my "separate the leagues" plan work, then it'd make sense to consider making each league into two divisions of eight teams. A lot of really cool rivalries died when baseball went to its current divisional format in the mid-90s; here in the NY area, a lot of Mets fans look back fondly on rivalries with the Cubs, Cardinals, and Pirates that simply don't exist anymore.
That said, I'm not going to propose a hard-and-fast plan; I don't think baseball can go back to only having 4 teams make the playoffs given how many teams there would be, but at the same time I'm not interested in heavily expanding MLB's playoff field, either. If I can figure out a new playoff format, I'd have an easier time figuring out a new divisional format.
With the NFL, I don't think you have to be as radical as I just plotted out with baseball, but I DO wish they'd get back to separating the NFC and AFC in a similar manner. The Super Bowl really isn't that exciting if your team isn't in it, but doing the same thing, crafting a "NFC Identity" and "AFC Identity", would give it a bit more oomph. This can possibly be accomplished by simply doing away with or minimizing regular season games between the two conferences, but I'd love to see the AFC get back to its early-60's color TV roots and try to be more flamboyant, or at least see teams get rid of the freaking boring-ass "NFL Approved" logos that took all the character out of their old uniforms (see: almost every old AFL team, particularly the Broncos, Patriots, etc.).
As things stand, the NFL really does earn the "No Fun League" moniker.
With the NBA, I'd reduce the number of playoff teams (though I know owners would never, EVER agree to this). There's just not enough parity, and while this year's playoffs had some unexpectedly exciting first round matchups, the results really weren't shocking. Nate Silver did a fascinating study that showed that the NBA is the league where you establish who the best in the league is the quickest (proportionally speaking, of course, given the NFL's shorter schedule); basically, you only need about 25 games to realize who the top clubs are. Cut it back to MLB's model: the division winners qualify, and the two top runners-up play a knockout game to determine the #4 seed in each conference. Or do the NFL model if you don't want to eliminate that many playoff teams. But the 16-team format just doesn't work most years.
By the by, on the NHL? Only one suggestion that immediately springs to mind:
GET RID OF THE DAMNED TRAPEZOID!!!
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