College Football is a sport with so much inequity in scheduling that sometimes I wonder why the NCAA or BCS allow the gimmicks that some Universities pull in their non-Conference calendar. Take the University of Florida Gators, they have four games outside of the SEC this coming season. Each game is at home, and besides the annual match-up against the Seminoles the other three are against non-BCS conference teams, and ones that aren’t that good at that. They host Western Kentucky, Troy and Florida Atlantic. While the SEC is a strong, possibly the strongest Conference, how does that schedule compare to say a mediocre PAC-10 team?

The University of Washington Huskies schedule is possibly the toughest out there. They open against a Big East squad 3,000 or so miles from home. While Syracuse isn’t very good, it is a long trip to open the season for a team in a BCS conference. Just over a week later the Huskies get to return home, but where many teams would plan to face a weaker club, the thought in some office in Seattle was to face Boise State (BCS qualified last year) and after that the OSU Buckeyes (BCS team). Within the PAC-10 season the U-dub faces USC (a the pros that play in college). The Dawgs end the season with another very long trip going all the way out to Hawaii to face a Heisman candidate after that trip.

Should the NCAA or BCS make an attempt to balance the schedules? Or is the current practice the best for the game? Anwer in the thread

In the past couple weeks several issues have sprung up that are dragging the names of Americas top sports through the proverbial mud. From Michael Vick’s indictment showering new commissioner Roger Goodell with criticism to David Stern facing his toughest challenge ever with a referee connected to gambling and point shaving the issues are rather large and not limited to these two sports. Goodell really hopes that you only think of Michael Vick when you think of the NFL and criminals. Let us not forget PacMan Jones, Tank Johnson and the rest of the Cincinatti Bengals. This is a league that is soiling its reputation through its players and too many of them with criminal misconduct. The NFL has an image problem that might just hurt its ratings and ticket sales in the upcoming season. Goodell has talked about taking the SuperBowl international, and yet their foreign farm league folded this year.

Stern, and the whole NBA, are getting rocked by the gambling story, but it is overshadowing other issues as well. USA Basketball isn’t very good and hasn’t competed on the international stage for too long. Once the US was the gold standard for basketball around the world, lately though they just hope to medal, even in continental tournaments. Inside the USA the NBA has issues as three teams have stadium/attendance issues facing them. The Kings likely lost their Vegas trump card in negotiating with the city, but they still won’t talk Sacremento in funding a new stadium for billionaire casino owners. Oklahoma City will no longer host the Hornets, but seem quite likely to wind up with the Sonics as no city in the Puget Sound will build a stadium to host the 40 year old former champion SuperSonics. No one can know how successful the Hornets will be in their return to New Orleans after their two year absence, but the team ownership can’t be happy with the large challenge of marketing a corrupted league.

Who would have thought at the start of the baseball season that there wouldn’t be one, but two stories diminishing the controversy of Barry Bonds, steroids and Bud Selig? Selig took several months, but it seems he finally decided to follow Barry on the chase, yet we still are left to wonder how will he address the questions that shadow Bonds? Steroids isn’t the only issue facing baseball though. Mega contracts are on their way back, as Marlins’ President Samson says “It’ll take the sport down, that contract.” He also called it “the end of the world as we know it.” That was only about Ichiro signing a five year, 90 million dollar extension. Its not like that’s Scott Boras asserting that Alex Rodriguez will be signing a 35 Million dollar per year deal this offseason. What would Samson say about a single player making as much his entire team? It seems that the megacontracts are on their way back and as soon as Selig figures out the steroids issue he’ll have to face the MLBPA again about contracts.

The Big Three aren’t alone in their struggles, though they are the biggest targets. The second tier leagues all wish they had the kind of coverage that the NFL, MLB and NBA get and the NHL once did. But hockey has signed a poor television deal without rights fees, and actually had playoff ratings in the USA that were lower than regular season WNBA games. After the long lockout attendance was initially back, but this year the struggle extended beyond just the SunBelt into some more traditional markets (Chicago and Boston) as well. Almost two-thirds of hockey fans on Fanhome think that Bettman is doing a poor job, and it is quite obvious that most of America agrees.

I tried to delve deeper and find good news for even less followed sports to see how they are doing. In Major League Soccer Garber has attained a ton of press, but almost all of it is about David Beckham as an entertainment star, not the performance on the field. It isn’t that the performance is poor, it is just inconsistent. Recently lower table Real Salt Lake beat Everton and the All Stars beat Celtic, those are good wins versus quality teams, but what does it mean when in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup only three MLS clubs advance to the quarterfinals of the tourney? DC United lost to a second division team even. Soccer is stronger than ever in the MLS era expanding into San Jose and maybe even Philly within the next year, and yet it faces the same issues it has since the NASL.

So which commissioner has it easiest right now?

I’m voting none of the above, there hasn’t been a worse time for pro team sports in my 3+ decades.

As I’m reminded by sometime FanHomer and current Admin at The ScoreBoards, TestSubjekt, I left out a sport that is usually hot this time of the year, the Tour de France. Likely the most drug plagued sport in the world, the Tour collapsed in the past two years. No Lance Armstrong, its last winner accused and its current winner was just kicked off of the his team due to drug issues as well. The Tour might be dead in North America.

The Vick saga continues with today’s announcement that he has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to traffic in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture. Other players inthe NFL before trial but after Grand Jury indictment were punished under the new rules of the NFL. Will the commissioner hold off considering the popularity of the player or lay down the law. PacMan Jones currently has the longest of the behavior based punishments at an entire year. Should Vick be punished before his guilt is determined?

Reportedly Brett Farve wants out of Pack land and reportedly — he’s retracted such statements. It’s quite a confusing scenario for the Green Bay fans as the team continues to rebuild… Yet there leader has not gotten the tools on offense to turn the Packers into contenders once again… All of this while Brett’s days are counting down to a precious few.

What are your thoughts on this? Join the discussion on our Green Bay Packers forum

The National Football League commences their College Entry Drat at noon ET on Saturday, April 28th in New York City. Make sure you drop by the 2007 Entry Draft thread on FanHome’s NFL Rumors and Draft forum this weekend and participate in the ongoing discussion and all the latest speculation on selections and trades during the two-day event.