One Thing Every Commissioner Should Change in 2012

I hate New Year's resolutions. Making a resolution to change something in your life just because the calendar turned from a year ending in 11 to one that ends in 12 is inherently ridiculous.

Wouldn't it be fun, then, to resolve a few changes for the commissioners of each major* American sport.

(*We can debate which of these sports are actually considered major, but I felt it was important to include some of these smaller leagues at the risk of excluding the likes of lacrosse and Arena Football.)

Roger Goodell, NFL

Roger Goodell really doesn't have much to change this year.

His league did manage to avoid any real ramifications from the lockout and is pulling in more TV and new media money for the NFL than any sport has ever gotten for anything—maybe not on a per-event basis but certainly per year, the NFL is more profitable than the Olympics or World Cup.

With Goodell using an iron fist to discipline the league, players have been relatively well behaved. He didn't have to deal with as much concussion discussion this year as in years past—the issues that did come up, like Colt McCoy for example, have been handled fairly well by the league—and the only real negative people can say about Goodell is that he has too much control, some of which he relinquished with regard to discipline as part of the new collective bargaining agreement. 

Let's hope that Goodell can go an entire 2012 without trying to shove the 18-game schedule or more regular-season games in other countries down our throats. One can wish.

David Stern, NBA

David Stern, frankly, should resolve to change his standing as head of the NBA.

No commissioner in American sports had a worse year than Stern, losing nearly 20 percent of his season to a lockout while completely losing trust from both the players and many of the owners.

It's amazing that the lockout wasn't Stern's biggest gaffe of 2011, with the loss of games seemingly overshadowed by how he handled the Chris Paul trade situation.

If Stern can make one change for the betterment of his own league, it might be to remove himself. Failing that, Stern should resolve to change back to what made him great less than a decade ago…if he still can.

Bud Selig, MLB

Bud Selig's legacy with MLB will be partly based on the expansion of playoffs and partly based on the time in history known as the "Steroid Era."

The addition of the Wild Card has been so good for baseball that Selig felt the need to expand it even more in late 2011. Let's hope he doesn't screw it up any further in 2012.

As for performance-enhancing drugs, it's amazing that baseball, and particularly Major League Baseball, is the only sport (other than perhaps cycling) that has any stigma with players getting caught.

If Selig can change anything in 2012, it's the public perception that only his players are cheaters, while players in other sports don't take any performance-enhancing drugs (or it doesn't matter if they do).

I know that's impossible for him to do, but all the good work to get PEDs out of his game are for naught when someone like Ryan Braun fails a test. If he can't stop the players from cheating, he needs to change public perception about the league's culpability.

If Selig can push for stricter testing and more transparency with the media and the public, it would be a start. He certainly doesn't want people to stop caring.

Dana White, UFC

Twenty years ago, we talked about the big four sports being NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. At some point, NASCAR jumped into that mix and Tiger Woods pulled the PGA into the conversation for a while, but Dana White has positioned UFC to be a mainstay in the upper echelon of American sports leagues.

The one thing White can do this year would be to find the next crossover, breakout star. I know this idea will likely anger MMA fans; suggesting the best way for the sport to grow in 2012 is to create a distraction—to find their version of The Rock—instead of focusing on making the actual sport better.

MMA has had big names like Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar and Rampage Jackson and Chuck Liddell and, to a lesser extent, Kimbo Slice, but none of those guys, as popular as they've become, have been the breakout face that can win a belt one night and co-host a morning show with Kelly Ripa the next morning.

The sport is healthy and sustainable, but to really grow the brand, someone is going to have to become that face.

Gary Bettman, NHL

A friend and I had a debate this week about the Winter Classic being the "Super Bowl of Hockey" and why the league has managed to capture so much excitement around a regular-season game played outdoors and not the Stanley Cup Finals, which have varying ratings depending on the teams playing, but haven't come close to the kind of built-in excitement as the Winter Classic.

In 2011, the NHL made the stagnating All-Star Game a bit fresher by having a pickup game chosen by voted-upon team captains. It was a very smart idea and got the All-Star Game a little more buzz than normal.

So, in 2012, Bettman needs to figure out a way to get as much buzz about his season's actual "Super Bowl" as he's gotten for its manufactured ones.

To be fair, the ratings for last season's finals were actually quite good, with Game 7 pulling in record numbers. That said, much of those ratings had to do with Boston being in the finals. If, say, Florida were to make the finals this season, will the NHL able to draw enough eyeballs to their championship?

I don't know how you make the Stanley Cup Finals as big an "event" as the Winter Classic, unless you make the finals a one-game winner-takes-the-Cup championship.

Then you'd have your Super Bowl of Hockey.

Don Garber, MLS

Reports indicate that David Beckham may be staying with the Los Angeles Galaxy, which is a huge win for Don Garber's league to start 2012. There is really only one thing Garber needs to do in 2012 and he knows it: get ESPN to take the MLS Cup Final more seriously.

Garber's league final was aired at 9 p.m. ET on a Sunday night, smack up against one of the biggest Sunday Night Football games of the season.

From what he said, Garber's hands were tied on the matter, left to the scheduling gods at the Worldwide Leader. But Garber needs to convince ESPN to give MLS its own time slot, even if that means a midweek final. Wednesday night at 8 p.m., each and every year, can be owned by MLS.

Landon Donovan and Beckham held up the MLS Cup this season and twice as many people would have been watching if the game were in a more attractive time slot. Garber has to get this fixed in 2012.

Oh, and hire better referees too. Thanks.

Tim Finchem, PGA

It's clear that Tim Finchem and the PGA need to figure out what to do in a world without Tiger Woods. There is a lot of other talent in the game, but Finchem needs to keep the advertisers and tournament sponsors happy as Woods plays less and less each year.

Sure, Tiger could have all his past transgressions and injury bugs behind him and recapture the sports world in 2012, but if that doesn't happen, Finchem needs to be prepared for what—and who—comes next. 

The other, more pressing issue for Finchem is what to do about the Fed Ex Cup playoffs.

Simply put, they aren't working. The PGA threw an enormous purse on top of their playoffs to entice the top players to play, but the structure still hasn't captured much of an audience like the majors do. The sad truth is that anything played after Labor Day will get overshadowed by football, 10 million bucks on the line or not.

Brian France and Mike Helton, NASCAR

NASCAR is almost like the NFL in that they don't need to change much.

Unlike the PGA Tour, their end-of-season playoff push has worked, capturing a ton of attention to those who don't watch racing every weekend. Unlike the UFC, NASCAR has a deep crop of breakout stars who can co-host with Kelly Ripa. In fact, Carl Edwards is doing just that next week.

The only thing NASCAR really needs to change this year is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s dang win total but I'm not sure France and Helton can have much to do with that.

Mark Emmert, NCAA, and John Swofford, BCS

Much like Roger Goodell trying to cram another two games down our NFL regular-season throats, the NCAA flirts with expanding the NCAA tournament to 96 or a ghastly 128 teams every year. Thankfully, the NCAA decided upon 68 in 2011 and hopefully they opt not to change any more in 2012.

Actually, it would be swell if Mark Emmert and the NCAA brass could change the tournament back to what it was. We don't need more teams in that tournament, and the four left over from the recent 64-team field could be loaned to the BCS! Everybody wins!

John Swofford, commissioner of the ACC and current man-in-charge of the BCS, could certainly take a few of the NCAA basketball teams for his own football tournament. Don't stop at four either. Take 16. The basketball tourney would be fine with 52.

Or make both 64...it would still be better than the BCS.

Brad Drewett, ATP, and Stacey Allaster, WTA

Brad Drewett took over at the helm of the ATP just a few days ago. He starts his new gig as the head of men's tennis with one major goal for 2012: figure out a way to market his enormous stable of stars in a way that makes Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal two of the guys, not the only two worth watching.

The fact is, Novak Djokovic is a bona fide superstar on and off the court. The ATP needs to figure out the best way to market him to the widest possible audience.

The other thing the ATP needs to do, domestically, is find a great American player who has the potential to win a few majors and get a racquet in his hand instead of a basketball or football. The best American player is Mardy Fish, who is ranked eighth in the world. The next highest-ranked Americans are Andy Roddick at 14 and John Isner at 18. Someone better come a long soon.

Stacey Allaster's biggest goal in 2012 should be figuring out how to control Serena Williams.

Sure, there are other issues in women's tennis, but the sport is far and away the most popular women's sport in the world. All things considered, the WTA is doing pretty well, so there aren't too many things worth changing in 2012...other than Williams' attitude.

Having said that, much like the men's game, there are no great American players right now. Serena is ranked 12^th in the world and the next highest American is Christina McHale at 43, unless you consider Maria Sharapova, who has been training in America since she was nine, as one of ours. 

For either sport to thrive in 2012 and beyond, Americans will need American players to cheer for.

Michael Whan, LPGA

The LPGA can take the same advice as several other leagues. First, much like the PGA, the LPGA needs to figure out a way to keep sponsors happy. That, first and foremost, means making sure the top players participate in as many events as possible.

Having said that, Michelle Wie hasn't been the superstar we expected her to be on the LPGA—much like Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a way—so hoping that Wie and a host of other young stars sit atop the leaderboards each week is something the LPGA can only wish for, but probably not change.

The LPGA does try. They've been more active on social media and give their non-English speaking players the responsibility to be able to interact with media and fans.

The biggest issue is that there is really no dominant star the media cannot ignore and I'm not sure that can change in 2012.

Laurel J. Richie, WNBA

I'm not sure the WNBA can change much of anything in 2012 to get more attention or grow a stronger foothold in the market either.

The fact is, women's basketball is more popular in college and the players actually become less famous once they become professionals in a way that's unlike any other American sport. That probably won't change anytime soon, no matter what catch phrase the WNBA puts on the scorers table during NBA games this season.

Speaking of the NBA, the only hope Laurel Richie can hang her hat on in 2012 is that David Stern, or those in charge when Stern retires, still hold the league in high regard.  For a league that needs another league to sustain its existence, change can be a bad thing.