More sports issues for the President-elect to mull

1/1/09
barack obama
By Max J. Dickstein

More sports issues for the President-elect to mull

Photo credit: Game Face

(Getty Images)

By Max J. Dickstein

“I think it is about time that we had playoffs in college football. I’m fed up with these computer rankings and this and that and the other. Get eight teams — the top eight teams right at the end. You got a playoff. Decide on a national champion.”

— Barack Obama, on Monday Night Football, Nov. 3, 2008

Let’s imagine — disregarding how relatively unimportant the following concerns are in the grander scheme — that we have President-elect Obama’s attention for a moment.

We commend Obama’s stance on the ritual unfairness of the Bowl Championship Series, cited above. The BCS is not really a series, and its annual winner is the victim of an unworthy system unable to produce a championship between two truly legitimate, match-tough college programs.

But where else in the sports world could a President Obama — as he officially be known come Jan. 20 — be an effective agent for change?Institute a salary cap in baseball

The Yankees’ brutish $423.5 million spending spree on free agents CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira this fall is probably more persuasive than a president could ever be on this score, but baseball clearly needs a salary cap — and a salary floor — to help restore competitive balance.

On opening day last year, the Florida Marlins’ $21.8 million payroll was less than 10 percent of the Yankees’ $209 million. Baseball’s piddling luxury tax, of which the Yankees have paid 90 percent ($148.3 million) since it was implemented in 2002, is not working.

President-elect Obama, isn’t it unreasonable to expect small-payroll teams such as 2008 pennant winner Tampa Bay ($43.8 million) to be competitive year after year in such a top-heavy spending climate?

Make NBA contracts nonguaranteed

The NBA and its players union have been innovative in their approach to ensuring competitive balance. Negotiations during the 1999 lockout brought on maximum contract amounts and durations, for example, and a severe, dollar-for-dollar luxury tax on teams that exceed the salary cap has been more of a deterrent to overspenders than has baseball’s system.

But a basic problem remains: NBA teams must fully guarantee balloonish deals, loading down payrolls and reducing player motivation.

The NBA would be better served by a system like the NFL’s, wherein teams guarantee only a portion of their deals.

In such a system, inactive Knicks malcontent Stephon Marbury could be jettisoned easily, and the Knicks wouldn’t need to sacrifice years undoing past contract mistakes.
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barack obama

More sports issues for the President-elect to mull

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