Why Every Sport Needs Relegation

Why Every Sport Needs Relegation

Joseph DiPietro

The May volume of Odin’s Thoughts centered around the underappreciated sport of soccer. I lost myself in my personal love for the game and for the bright future of American soccer (see our recent win over Mexico in a tournament championship) and therefore forgot one of my favorite parts of the sport: relegation. I understand many folks’ struggle watching the game, but the way soccer leagues reward good teams and punish bad teams is magnificent.

If you are not familiar, relegation is the process of pushing the worst-finishing teams to a lower league and pulling the top teams from the lower league up. This system is great for many reasons, but the main reason is effort.

Unlike many American professional leagues, European soccer leagues have a safeguard to throwing seasons or “tanking” as you might know it by. Finishing in the bottom of the EPL, for example costs the team and ultimately the players millions of dollars. In the NFL, finishing last actually is better than finishing in the middle in a sense, because you are rewarded with the top selection in the next draft. While there is no minor league system for the NFL, this could be the future of the XFL/AAF and the top teams from those leagues could be promoted to the NFL following championship seasons. The NBA is priming this option by increasing focus on the G-League, and baseball already has a robust minor league system easily translatable to European soccer. If you ever watch the last weekend of soccer, particularly the games that determine relegation, it is a demonstration of pure effort, and the system leads to a more merit-based process and increased passion.

With new Name-Image-and-Likeness laws in play for college sports (a step in the right direction), the field of post-college but pre-professional athletes will be an interesting stage to watch. I believe these rules open the markets and public interest to allow for more entertaining and more meaningful minor league play in all sports, specifically football, and a relegation system can help drastically improve the perception of those leagues. These leagues can lead to a tremendous increase in jobs, not only for the athletes but for coaches, support staff, and stadium personnel, so successful minor league programs could really help struggling communities too.

In the end, it is competition that people love to be a part of, and love to watch. Relegation, along with sports in general, provide competition that allows many folks to benefit.

As a bonus, and because my real work got the best of me last month, I will add an additional topic of consideration: what is going on at ESPN?

Plenty of professional (and better) sports reporters have already commented on and analyzed the situation at ESPN regarding Maria Taylor and Rachel Nichols. Maria went to my high school, and as a Georgia athlete she was always impressive. I met her a few times and she was always kind and has tremendous talent in sports reporting. Personally, I think she is a better reporter than Rachel Nichols. That said, I genuinely hope, and there really is no need for it, that no one is getting a job (or not getting a job) based on the color of their skin. If ESPN determined Maria was a better fit for their show, which I think is very fair, they should come out and say it and squash the rumors.

Conversely, and I have to add Stephen A. Smith to the conversation, the amount of money ESPN is allegedly paying these personalities after firing a massive amount of folks during a pandemic is outrageous. It is reported that Maria is being offered anywhere from five to seven million dollars, and SAS is on track for 12 million a year. I am all for individuals getting their value and making money. No problem with it at all. Of course, that changes when for a year these individuals have supported questionable organizations that preach wealth distribution and income equality. In my mind, I would rather live comfortably with a quality salary (say, a few million in this case?) and allow others to have jobs to feed their families too.

This same concept applies on the field. Tom Brady is the perfect example, an outstanding quarterback (certainly one of the best, and THE best when it comes to preparation), consistently short-changed himself to allow other quality players to get paid. To him, winning was more important than bringing home the dough, and you love to see that mentality. Of course, he married a super-model wife that made more than he did, and even without her he was a millionaire, but still you have to wonder how these players, particularly QBs and pitchers, are ok taking 25% of the salary cap only to finish without championships. Maybe I care about winning too much, but sign me up for the “make half and win” club any day of the week.