What changes would you make to the major sports leagues?

[TMC]

For example:
http://officialfan.proboards.com/thr...leagues?page=2

Post by HMARK Center on yesterday at 5:01pm
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!!!

[MrCleveland]

I'd say give smaller markets a chance to win it all...It's always New York, Los Angles, Chicago, Miami, or even Detroit...Cleveland might as well get rid of all their teams because...they're cursed to be a no market city!