Mark’s Wild Changes For Each Major Sports League

I've had a little extra time to sit around and think over the last couple months. While I would welcome back sports under any scenario with open arms, here are some changes I'd seriously consider implementing should I ever be named Grand Master of the Universe.

MLB – Keep 3x10 divisions, shorten season and expand playoffs.

- First up, we’re dialing the clock back 60 years and reverting to a 154-game schedule. (We’ll need that extra week).

- Take the weird idea that surfaced earlier this year about MLB adding a wild card team, but get rid of the weird pick-your-opponent component.

- Leagues are gone. You have three division winners and nine wild cards, aka, you go four-deep in each division. The division winners and the wild card team with the best record earn a bye into the LDS. The remaining eight teams are left to play in the Wild Card Round.

- Wild card Round is best of three with home team hosting all three games. Matchups are based on records, with #8 playing #9 (victor plays division winner 1) #5 playing #12 (victor plays top-wild card), #6 playing #11 (victory playing division winner 3) and #7 vs. #10 (victor plays division winner 2).

- LDS consists of 4 best-of-5 series, LCS and World Series remain best-of-7.

- There would be no argument that the best team won in the end because if say both the Red Sox and the Yankees had 105 wins, they could end up meeting in the World Series.

NBA – A revamped playoff tournament with 1-16 seeding, shorter rounds.

- Few things in sports are as automatic as predicting the NBA playoffs, and few things tend to drag on as long.

- At the end of the regular season, the playoff tournament consists of the top-16 teams.

- #1 plays #16, #2 plays #15 and so on.

- Round one is a one-off, quarterfinals are a best-of-3, semifinals are a best-of-5 and the Finals are a best-of-7.

- Games are played at the higher seed’s home court in round 1, quarterfinals are a 1-1-1 split, with higher seed hosting games 1 and 3, semifinals are 2-2-1 and finals are the current 2-2-1-1-1.

NHL – Later start to the season and a face-off tourney.

- Give me a later start to the regular season (I’m looking at the week between Christmas and New Year’s, with a final Opening Day game on January 1 in the form of the Winter Classic.

- Begin the season with a 3-week single elimination tournament involving each team. Winner gets an automatic bid to the postseason, get rid of one of the wild cards. NHL playoffs make no sense anyways.

NFL – Make your move into Saturday’s.

- Get rid of Thursday Night Football and give me two games on Saturday’s, one at 5pm and one at 8:15pm.

- Players would certainly prefer playing on Saturday evening/night as opposed to Thursday nights.