A Better Sports Calendar

Sports fans across the nation are currently suffering through the annual dregs of the sports calendar. Every year, we face an unbearable patch of athletic dormancy following the NBA finals, and every year it feels more painful. Let's face it-- midseason baseball is monotonous, and boredom is the only reason people get hyped up about the All Star break and the trade deadline. This summer, Euro 2008 was a brief salve in June and the Beijing Olympics will provide an early end to the doldrums starting this Friday. But what about next year, when there are no quadrennial international events to provide relief in the 10 weeks preceding the start of football season?

This is why we need to revise the sports calendar, re-arranging the seasons of various sports to avoid dead spots. I'm focusing on the six major sports (college and pro football, college and pro basketball, hockey and baseball) and the high-profile secondary sports of golf and tennis. What follows is a schedule meant to A) maximize the amount of sports taking place at any given time, and B) space out the playoffs of the various sports to prevent overlap.

Calendars that don't change: College Football, College Basketball, Golf, Baseball

If we're trying to be as realistic as possible in this exercise, it's important to acknowledge that the college sports calendars would be the most difficult to change, since they're tied to the academic calendar. Besides, who wants to mess with March Madness? I would like the college football bowl games to start a week earlier, culminating with the four BCS bowl games on Jan. 1, and the championship game on Jan. 2. But this is merely condensing the useless hype of bowl season and wouldn't affect the regular season schedule. Golf and baseball also wouldn't start earlier or later, due to the fact that bad weather bookends these seasons in much of the country.

Calendars with minor movement: NFL, NHL, Tennis

Instead of having the NHL season start in October and get overshadowed by baseball's postseason, I'm pushing hockey's start to mid November. This will push the perennially underrated Stanley Cup playoffs deeper into the summer, providing a better showcase. With tennis, I'm moving the French open to early May and Wimbledon to late July. This accomplishes two goals: splitting up the French Open and Wimbledon (which are inexplicably back-to-back) and moving Wimbledon to a less-rainy time of year.

The best aspect of this entire calendar is the move I'm making with the NFL. I'm starting the season one month later, which pushes the entire playoffs into February, culminating in the Super Bowl during the first Sunday in March. February is one of the two dead spots on the current sports calendar-- imagine if it were filled by biggest postseason of all? You'd also have an increased chance of snow games, which viewers absolutely love. As long as the Super Bowl continues to be held in domes and warm-weather cities, there shouldn't be a problem.

Calendar with the mega-change: The NBA

In order to make a significant impact on the summer, there had to be one sport with a significant change in its season. The Association is the perfect candidate, since it's an indoor sport with an extended postseason. We push back the start of the NBA season from November to January, right after the college bowl games are done. That means the playoffs start Independence Day weekend and last right up until the start of college football. When combined with the Stanley Cup chase preceding it, this creates a glorious Playoff Summer, where May, June, July and August are taken up by the NHL and NBA playoffs, with baseball, tennis and golf underlying everything. Boom- no more summer sports doldrums.

Here's a visual of my plan, with the current calendar followed by the new-and-improved version. The fan's life will never be the same.