1. The BCS.See: Prior post.

2. Video Replay.
Football does it slowly. Basketball does it for scoring. Hockey does it in Toronto. Baseball refuses to use it for anything besides home runs. There is a definate need to integrate replay into baseball. Traditionalists argue that human mistakes have always been part of the game. They know its a stupid argument, so they point to it slowing down a slow game. Replay in all sports could be done quicker with a judge in the booth simply making the replay aided call, then relaying it to the head official, instead of supplying reviews to the on-the-field decision makers.

3. Keeping up with Big Ten football.
It’s actually the Big 11 and they’ve continued to lose prestige to the SEC. Is it overall speed? Recruiting superiority? Coaching? Weather?No, its backward leadership which should promote its competitive depth which is only a consistent Indiana, Illinois, Purdue and Minnesota away from a top-to-bottom powerhouse. They can also consider admitting a 12th team to the conference and put in a conference championship. Or, they could also do this with 11 teams, and not have a need to raid the Big East for Rutgers, West Virginia or Syracuse.

4. Big Markets/Small Markets.
Having not trusted baseball owners since the Ueberroth “collusion years,” their closed books enable a fictional tale of financial gloom. According to Red Sox owner John Henry, “over a billion dollars have been paid to seven chronically uncompetitive teams, five of whom had baseball’s highest operating profits.” Somehow this points baseball to consider a salary cap that the player’s union, Scott Boras and the wildly profitable Yankees will certainly oppose. Still, the current system lends itself to schedule fillers and uncompetitive louts who effect pennant races, player disbursement and profits. With a cap all 32 teams would have the same financial advantage. If history is any indication, a cap would only create those that would be willing to exceed the cap and pay a tax and those who will operate well under their spending threshold. The same guys who cry “unfair” to big markets, are those whom will manipulate the system to their advantage. Like all of baseball’s problems it will never be settled by a commissioner who is an employee of the owners.

5. The NHL.
The league is only a couple of steps ahead of the WNBA in terms of viability. Somehow ESPN should be forced to assume the Versus TV contract. Hockey should also do a better job promoting its players despite the scourge of foreign names that don’t roll off the tongue. Shootouts should give way to an additional ten minutes of 4-on-4. Technology and Las Vegas should be embraced. Arenas should be wired for high-definition broadcasts and puck-following enhancements should (again) be implemented. Instead of avoiding the gambling mecca, the NHL should make it a media center and a crossroads between north and south and east and west. Both the NHL and Vegas could use the boost.

6. Soccer in the USA.
Here’s your primer that you will need to know for next summer’s World Cup starting June 11th in South Africa…Landon Donavan is our best player. Tim Howard is our goalie. Bob Bradley is our coach. Michael Bradley, Bob’s son, is a fiery midfielder. The U.S. drew a group to open the Cup that includes England, Slovenia and Algeria. David Beckham, Donavan’s on-again-off-again friend and teammate on the LA Galaxy, plays for England. Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia from 1945 until its independence in 1991. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on the northeast and Austria on the north. Ljubljana is its capital. Other key players: F Clint Dempsey and D Jonathan Spector, who along with Howard, play professionally in England, and captain D Steve Cherundolo. 58 players make up the player pool. 11 players are on the field. The roster is 18 players. Notable names in the players pool: M Freddy Adu and D Marvell Wynne, son of the former major league baseball player of the same name.

7. The 2010 Winter Olympics.
The Winter Olympics are scheduled for Vancouver from February 12 to the 28th. Since its Canada, hockey will grab a spotlight with former Red Wings Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman, assembling a Canadian team led by Sidney Crosby and goalie Martin Brodeur. The Red Wings’ Mike Babcock will coach. Wayne Gretzky will supervise. The USA team will be coached by Ron Wilson. Jamie Langenbrunner and Zach Parise of the NJ Devils will provide one line’s punch. The Buffalo Sabres Ryan Miller will likely be the goalkeeper while Ryan Malone, Brian Rafalski, Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Patrick Kane provide power and stability for the U.S. Ice Skating will also capture its usual wide audience. The U.S. Championships will be held in late January and will dictate the fates of women favorites that include Sasha Cohen, Alissa Czisny, Rachael Flatt, Caroline Zhang and Ashley Wagner. For the men, look for Ben Agosto, Johnny Weir, Charlie White, Jeremy Abbott, Brandon Mroz, Evan Lysaek, Ryan Bradley and Adam Rippon to make a claim for three mens spots, two pair spots and three dance spots. Lindsey Vonn is the female skier to watch. Bode Miller is back to bother us with his personality, not his downhill capability. Apolo Anton Ohno is back with the speedskating team that is getting a lot of publicity due to TV’s Stephen Colbert. Shaun White returns as a skateboarding wizard.

8. Tiger Woods.
He’s worth a billion already and he remains golf’s number one player, even though he didn’t win a major in 2009. He did win the most money and he’ll need it to bonus “Team Tiger” to get him out of this public perception debacle that may never go away. His marriage is another story. Payback is a bitch for a guy who completely controlled the media on his terms until now. Should this be a surprise? Not if you took note that he hangs with serial womanizers, gamblers and VIP room regulars like Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan. If he wants to repair his family and regain Elin’s trust, he’ll have to give thought to dumping his caddy, bodyguards, agents and any of the other on-the-road support team that enabled him.

9. Women’s Professional Sports.
Perhaps the biggest scam in sports is the financial viability of the WNBA, a league that pads attendance and sponges from the NBA’s support to stay alive. Media interest is another scam, as no self-respecting reporter will cover the league or even offer a comment. Turning the other way and ignoring it is the WNBA standard. And so a professional women’s soccer league was launched this year to similar signs of eventual bankruptcy. And the LPGA lost sponsor after sponsor, drove out its commissioner and tried to replace the “Lesbian complex” with the “Korean complex.” At the risk of being labeled a misogynist, someone had to say it out loud.

10. Referees and Umpires.
No one wants to label Tim Donaghy with anything good, but he has brought out of the closet what bettors have suspected for years….refs and umps make mistakes and sometimes they do it on purpose. Of course, Misters Stern and Selig and Goodall and, to a lesser degree, Bettman will spin it otherwise, but there isn’t a game that doesn’t have glaring mistakes made by the game’s arbiters that effect the outcome of the game. NFL linesmen who spot the ball are the biggest offenders, interpreting body parts touching the ground and the position of the ball that lead to measurements and white-hatted refs pointing up to the booth with their fingers inches apart. It’s a game of inches, but it’s time improve on the guesswork. Strike zones for individual umpires are another subjective area. Fans can only hope that the ump “calls it both ways,” but they rarely do. Make-up calls are utilized in all four sports, which is an admission to their errs and grudges against individual players are worst in the NHL, but abundant in every league. What to do? Start by not ignoring the facts and come up with ways to correct the flaws. Replay, improved reporting and supervision would be a start.