This has been a great NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament. It has had all the right ingredients: buzzer beaters, upsets, and break through performances. So with a near perfect formula, why would the NCAA consider expanding the Tournament, and risk cheapening its significance? I mean will anyone watch Selection Sunday anymore? College basketball is not alone in wanting too much. There are a lot of successful professional sports that ignore the adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”Then there are others that need fixing bad! Let us take a look at a few.

The NFL, MLB, NBA, and college football all seem to be doing relatively well, just like college basketball. Ratings, sponsorships, and attendance for these leagues are all at or near the top of major U.S. sports. However, the NFL wants to extend the season another two games. The move would obviously be made to generate more television revenue. But what are the risks? How many games are too many? NCAA College Football multiplied their revenues in the last two decades by creating super-conferences and adding meaningless bowl games. Then they complicated everything when they added the controversial BCS playoff system, which is too perplexing to explain in one blog.  Now fan dissatisfaction is at a tipping point.

Major League baseball survived the strike of 1995, and the subsequent steroid era and controversy, with record support and television exposure. However, today it faces challenges competitively and economically in small markets. What will they do? Probably something to make things worse. For instance, there is a rumor that they are considering a realignment that would create a hierarchy of league play like European soccer, in which teams can be demoted and promoted to higher and lower divisions based on their success. What?

The NBA seems less likely to mess with success.  They have had their challenges. In 2004 players from the Indiana Pacers went up into the crowd in Detroit to brawl with fans. In 2007 the FBI charged an NBA referee for fixing games. But Commissioner David Stern has made all the right moves in damage control. Under his tenure the NBA has expanded in all the right markets, landed all the best television contracts, strongly enforced its codes of conduct, and most importantly, done little to tamper with the game, season, or playoffs themselves.

There are a few sports that actually needed change, and made it well. NASCAR was a regional sport for the rural south, and in many ways it still is. However, in 2001 they landed a major television contract with ESPN, and marketed the sport on its race teams and point standings, instead of individual races and drivers. Today it has more sponsors than any major U.S. sport, and is second only to the NFL in television ratings.

On the other side of the spectrum are the sports that haven’t done enough. The NHL achieved record attendance in the 2008-09 season, however still has television ratings that rival bowling and poker. During recent expansion, the NHL spread itself too thin with franchises in Miami, Atlanta, Phoenix, Nashville, and Tampa. Then they took a confusing point system for standings and made it even more confusing by adding something called an “overtime loss.” The magnificent hockey played by NHL players at the Winter Olympics should help spark interest again, but Commissioner Gary Betman seems poised to stifle that momentum by remaining uncommitted to the next Winter Games.

Tennis anyone? Tennis no one. As in no one is watching. Men’s and women’s professional tennis have struggled with ratings. What’s wrong is that there are fewer rivalries, shorter volleys, and virtually no Americans at the top of the rankings. In the last decade, the ATP and WTA have sat on their hands and hoped that Roger Federer and the Williams sisters would magically save their sport. They have not.

Soccer and golf are not so easy to assess. Interest in pro soccer has always been far behind the traditional team sports in the U.S., even hockey. Many games are decided once the first goal is scored, and there are far too many ties. Nevertheless, the MLS has done an exceptional job in getting the best U.S. players to remain stateside. They have also marketed themselves in places where they have the most chance for success.  Like the NHL with the Olympics, the MLS can capitalize on a strong U.S. showing in the World Cup.

The popularity of golf has skyrocketed since the arrival of Tiger Woods in 1996. Sponsors, tournaments, and even other professional golfers have made more money thanks to Woods. Now Tiger is finally facing some heat after fourteen years of good behavior. And finally you are seeing that the PGA Tour, and golf itself, are far too dependent on Tiger. If I were anyone related to the game (other than his wife), I would embrace his wax-museum-like apologies, and push him to get back on the course ASAP.

Then there is boxing. I love boxing. I used to coach boxing. I even worked in boxing. But this once great sport, which was the only major professional sport in America just a century ago, is now on a respirator. There are too many belts, little organization, and poor exposure outside of pay-per-view. The few pay-per-view matchups are contrived and overpriced. Maybe the most glaring deficiency is at the heavyweight division, where a handful of unmarketable Eastern European champions orbit a black hole of disinterest. The talent and participation in amateur boxing is shrinking. In the Summer Games the U.S. took home only one bronze medal. My boxing mentor, Deacon Harris would love this statement, but there are too many freestyle fighters, with no foundation, no defense, no heart, and no art.

What boxing needs to do is better organize. Get rid of all these belts. Create a more uniform system of who fights who for what. Make the rankings and records really count. Play up the regional matchups, like a tournament of Philly fighters against New York fighters for instance. The amateur ranks need to develop more talent too. There are not enough good coaches.

Nevertheless, boxing is not completely dysfunctional. It has a bona fide star in Manny Pacquiao. And it has what I consider the most overlooked story in sports: Bernard Hopkins. At 45, Hopkins is probably the best fighter in boxing, north of middleweight division. Since a loss to Roy Jones in 1993, Hopkins has dominated the middleweight, super-middleweight, and light-heavyweight ranks for almost 20 years, with only three losses. Tomorrow night he meets Jones again, and will likely remind everyone how much better he is and was than Jones, who has lost 5 of his last 10. The fight itself will probably remind us all that boxing is running out of storylines.

Tweet  Print This Post

Tags: sports // Add Comment »