2010’s in review: End of decade grades for five major sports

December 31ends not just 2019, but the decade.  Before January 1, when all hindsight, at least technically, is 20-20, here are my grades for the five major pro and collegiate sports.

NBA 

The stultifying world of iso and two-man game, gave way to state-of-the-art team basketball, as pioneered by the NY Knicks of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, in the persona of the Golden State Warriors, who put to use scintillating skills both shooting and passing and, with help from the rules, moved the NBA toward skilled smaller ball.  It’s more egalitarian and elegant.  

The most dynasty-prone of all major pro leagues produced seven different champs since 2010.  Now, we are in a season where we didn’t know the champ before the opening tip off of the season (and probably still don’t know) the two finalists, for a change.  

The NBA improved this decade.

Grade: B+.  

(The continued diminishing of the quality of college basketball by the NBA is a different category.)

MLB 

The only league where small markets, unglamorous losers, and perennial also-rans (like the Kansas City Royals) can dream of rising from the bottom and upending the big guys, is Major League Baseball. The only major pro league without a salary cap is one where teams without tradition, employing shrewd and cost-effective analytics like the Astros, can become powers. The Giants with a shrewd General Manager won three World Series as a wild card with trade deadline additions, and their sellouts grew a budget to compete. Attendance matters in Major League Baseball.   

While we don’t forgive the Astros, their arrogance or applaud that older men with bad knees from sliding hard into third are losing their jobs to the nerds who carried slide rules not gloves to school in our day, it is painful progress. Baseball remains a sport where the big guys just like the little guys need to build from within their own farm systems. As have the Yankees, Dodgers, & Astros.  

Still MLB’s decade gets a mixed grade because the game of baseball itself, on the field, is deteriorating. With more K’s than hits, home runs are driving out the small ball finesse of the sport men of all sizes can play. Additionally, problematic are changes to the baseball within a season; a crisp 2.5 hour sport has become a three-plus and four hour marathon (no wonder people watch from the distant party deck with a beer or something stronger); and the players union, once the standard for all unions everywhere, which previously failed to protect their own players health and ability to compete and succeed fairly, enabling the steroid era, now won’t allow pitch and hit clocks, leading to fundamental changes of the grand old game itself by forcing pitchers to face three batters.  

Grade: B-

NFL

Gets credit for admitting, grudgingly, and finally, that their modern gladiators don’t just have problems walking after their careers, but thinking and surviving.  They are attempting to throw money and rules changes at the problems that can never be totally eliminated from a sport that is brutal by design. 

I give credit on the field for the move toward mobile QBs and the more exciting option-oriented, wide open college version with its diverse styles of play. It’s opened up the game.  

There have been eight different champs in last ten Super Bowls, with only the Patriots repeating three times in four SB appearances.  14 teams reached the past 10 Super Bowls.  Non-glamorous destinations as diverse as Baltimore, Seattle, Denver, Indy, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Carolina got there.  The only limitation is that 12 of those 14 teams had an elite QB.  All 14 had a QB playing at an elite level. That’s just the definition of the game. 

The NFL game is so strong and compelling, whether your team wins or loses, that NFL Sundays (if no longer Mondays and never Thursdays) provided half of the most watched TV shows every year, and most of the nation’s sports talk. Proof of its powerful standing is that in this divided nation, the NFL is surviving a spontaneous, not thought out in advance, misunderstood and manipulated cry for inclusion from its athletes, 70% of whom are black, who during the national anthem controversy understandably felt compelled to represent those who have not made it out from disadvantaged communities.  

The most significant trend here, for me, which I like, is that no matter how ascendant the pass is, the hottest coaches and most innovative schemes all rely on running the ball to complement or set up the pass.  It’s still old school football. Not to mention defense first.  

It is not one of my favorite sports, I watch because I must, it’s my job, but if I am a neutral observer, I give the NFL a solid B+.

Grade: B+

College Basketball

Unlike College Football or Baseball, sports whose pro leagues abide by different rules, the quality of collegiate basketball play has suffered from the most talented players not playing together for very many seasons – mainly due to the financial lure of pro basketball here and abroad.  I give the game credit because CBB has escaped the one-and-done era without any UCLA-like dynasties. (It is more than coincidence that college hoops took off after John Wooden’s retirement.)  

Only two one-and-done teams have captured the NCAA title. Both 2012 Kentucky and Duke in 2015 won where others failed with elite talent, because of pure basketball reasons.  Duke’s Tyus Jones, the tournament MOP, made those other three frosh starters champs as only a classic college point guard can, controlling the game, distributing then scoring the rock when needed.  None of the Duke championship four freshmen are regular NBA starters.  Kentucky has won once with annual highly sought talent because of generational talent Anthony Davis, a big with guard skills, who dominated both ends of the floor. A single one-and-done frosh teammate of Davis remains in the NBA.  He is not a starter.  

The biggest detractor in my college hoops grade is scandal.  Whether you are appalled that the NCAA and its top coaches make millions while players don’t get paid cash or if you value the educational and cultural benefit bestowed, the recent FBI investigation publicized the tip of the depths of recruiting monies paid to players and their families.  

The big questions remain. 

How will pay-for-play be implemented? The NBA looks like they will now cooperate, remove one-and-done, and offer a palatable minor league option.  

Will the top talent be playing G league ball soon instead?  The NCAA has not yet cleaned up its game, taking institutions of higher learning back to their intended role in society.  

Further, no Cinderellas took down a title, with only Butler (twice) and Texas Tech getting a shot at the crown in the finals.

Grade: C+

College Football

The best move in any sport was going to College Football Playoff, while keeping and incorporating the bowl games. Four teams means the regular season remains do-or-die with elimination games.  It also guarantees that the heavyweights, like the three dominant unbeatens this year, will square off, making this the rival of the men’s basketball Final Four for the best in all sport. 

The most significant coaching hire this decade was Defensive Coordinator Brett Venables who has stayed with Dabo Swinney at Clemson since 2012.  But as four-straight Alabama vs. Clemson playoff games this decade attest, it can unfortunately be all about recruiting, thus it’s still a coaches game that way too. 

I will downgrade CFB because in six CFP with 24 possible slots the closest teams to a sleeper have been Washington and Michigan St. Outside of Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Ohio State, only seven universities have reached the playoffs in six years, each once.  

There remains no realistic path for a non-power five team to challenge.  

Christian McCaffery and Leonard Fournette began the trend and now others choose not to play in the bowl games. This hurts the end of season showcases between different conferences that answer questions.  

Pay for play is coming, and it may be significant for some, but where is lifelong medical care for the 99% who give it all for their alma maters at all levels and will never get a pro paycheck?

Still, college football remains the most entertaining version of the USA’s most popular sport, with its diverse offensive styles and defensive schemes, supported by the best pageantry: the variety of campus stadiums and traditions, marching bands, live and costumed mascots, hysterically pitched students and passionate alumni rooting for the name on the front of the jersey. Its top award, The Heisman Trophy, is all about the college game, not who will have the best NFL career.  All that makes this sport’s decade a winner.  

Grade: B+

Forget the rest of the world, which sport lets us do, however briefly, as fans we have enjoyed a good ten years. 

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