Hot Takes

Today, I'm spewing hot takes. Let's get right into it.

The "one-and-done" rule is ruining college basketball.

College basketball has turned into a popularity contest. Now, schools like Kentucky, Duke, and Kansas rule over the rest of the NCAA, simply because the have the power to attract top level freshean. Say what you will about these fantastic freshmen players, there should be something preventing them from jumping over to the NBA after one season of college basketball. It's not good for the game. Here's how I propose to reform the system:

• Players are eligible to qualify for the NBA Draft straight out of High School.
• The nation's top high school players are assessed and given a letter of evaluation by a special NBA panel. The goal of this being to help players determine whether or not they are ready to enter the NBA Draft.
• Players who choose to play college basketball are required to spend 3 years at their respective universities before qualifying for the NBA Draft.
• Players who choose not to enter the NBA draft or enroll in college are permitted to play in other arenas of professional basketball, such as Europe, China, Australia, the NBA D-League, etc.

Boom. If anybody from the NCAA or the NBA wants to call me, we can talk any time you're available.

NFL head coaches should not be immediately fired based on a bad season.

Now that we've reached the end of the NFL regular season, we see loads of coaches fired from their positions. Why? Because their respective teams are terrible. Should a team's record reflect on a coach? Absolutely. Should that be reason enough to fire a coach? Not always. I completely understand firing a coach for other reasons the media are not privy to, or perhaps for several consecutive losing seasons, but simply because your franchise suffered through a poor season or two? That's not enough. The players are the ones out there playing the game, and the management are the ones putting them there. When weeding through your staff, start there.

The MLS needs to adopt a promotion/relegation system like the rest of the world.

While currently the future of the next two leagues under the MLS are in doubt, a big step in fixing American soccer would be to adopt a similar promotion/relegation system used by the top leagues all over the globe. It would look something like this:

• The MLS abandons the whole "conference" and "playoff" idea.
• Instead, they choose to have the league's champion decided by the team with the most points at the end of the season.
• The bottom three teams in the league are relegated to the NASL (North American Soccer League).
• This brings popularity and notoriety to the NASL.
• The top 2 teams from the NASL are automatically promoted to the MLS.
• The next four teams compete in a playoff to determine the third promoted team.
• The bottom three teams from the NASL are relegated to the next league.
• Repeat the process for as many leagues as desired.

Not only does this process completely revamp the landscape of soccer in North America, it also provides hope for the lower league clubs.

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