Post a rule change that you think would improve a sport
every now and then I see a sport with a rule (or absence of a rule) that I think is a detriment to the sport. bad rules usually provide incorrect incentives or fail to achieve maximum utility.
two I thought of:
1) regarding fouling at end of basketball game.
fouling is a penalty. usually, in sports, we try to make committing a penalty -EV (eg. everyone was pissed when the guy handball-blocked that goal in the world cup this year... eg. we don't allow NFL defenses to commit offsides to stop the clock at the end of games, etc.)
In basketball, committing a foul is obviously +EV for the trailing (and sometimes leading) team at times. shouldn't fouling be a detriment? one solution might be to allow the team that is fouled the option of inbounding the ball instead of shooting free throws (maybe even resetting the shot clock).
2) preseason AP polls in college football
the preseason polls in college football have a too significant of an impact for what they are. the fact that a team like OSU starts arbitrarily in the top 5 allows them a lot more leeway than a team equally as talented that starts at #25. not sound like a homer, but if Wisconsin and OSU were to win out, OSU would likely jump Wisconsin in the polls, largely due to their preseason status.
one fairer solution would be making the preseson polls 100% merit based (based on the final BCS standings based on the previous year). obviously teams change a lot year to year, but at least we'd be ranking teams based on merit (and not pure public perception)
obviously a lot of the rules posted in this thread will be logically shot down by those who know the sport well, but it would be cool if we could come up with a few consensus changes
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After an out-of-bounds in the NBA, if any player points in their direction which goes against the call on the floor, it constitutes an official challenge of the call
Would support the same for NFL and fumbles
soccer
obvious one everyone should agree with
offsides - change it to being within an arm's length or some other arbitrary measure that we can nitpick and argue over - the spirit of the offsides is in preventing attackers from just camping the net, this adjustment still accomplishes that and allows for attackers to take more freedoms and not be worried if their nose is 2 cm further than the back heel of the defender etc etc
two terrible ones that could destroy the game as we know it
powerplays - most of the time a free kick is pretty meaningless, we should include a timeout period for the offender where the other team gets to play 11 on 10 for a brief period of time
wall near the goal - the purpose of this wall will be to turn near misses into rebounds - which will both assuredly increase scoring but also encourage more players to take big shots from distance rather than just pass it back and forth repeatedly outside the box - could also serve as cool device for creative players to bounce the ball off the wall as a pass or self pass to get around the defender - the wall will only go a couple feet outside the goal so it will only come into play on near misses - we can consider lowering the walls in the event of penalty kicks
Why is offside necessary in hockey and soccer but not in basketball?
I just played both sports recreationally on the playground a lot growing up. Off sides was never an enforced rule. It didn't seem to ruin the games at all to not have it.
Also an idea. Baseball games are really slow (and I say this as a baseball fan who appreciates the slowness but hears over and over again the complaints from non fans that baseball is too slow). Would the game benefit from less of both balls and strikes? What if instead of 4 balls for a walk and 3 strikes for a strikeout it was instead 2 balls for a walk and 2 strikes for a strikeout? Seems like maybe a faster paced game with lower pitch counts.
I've said for a while they should get rid of it in hockey. If anything have a 3 line pass rule. Can't pass from behind your blue to over the other blue line. But would be curious to see how it played out.
And of course soccer should have no offside. Stupid rule for a low scoring sport.
soccer
obvious one everyone should agree with
offsides - change it to being within an arm's length or some other arbitrary measure that we can nitpick and argue over - the spirit of the offsides is in preventing attackers from just camping the net, this adjustment still accomplishes that and allows for attackers to take more freedoms and not be worried if their nose is 2 cm further than the back heel of the defender etc etc
changing the precise point at which someone is onside as opposed to offside does not change the problem people have with the rule, which is taking time to work out if someone is "just" offside, you will always have a point where it switches from one to the other
changing the precise point at which someone is onside as opposed to offside does not change the problem people have with the rule, which is taking time to work out if someone is "just" offside, you will always have a point where it switches from one to the other
you're probably right that offense will just start taking more risks and we'll have the same frequency of offsides
it's more about someone makes a great run and doesn't need to worry about whether they are half a millimeter offsides
like this should never be offsides, killing goal because the run started like this is not within the spirit of the rule
When a checker piece becomes a king, it can move like a chess knight.
Could call the new variant: Chessers.
