Inside Sports: Long Seasons--and Seasons on Top of Seasons:

Straight AheadAnd next weekend, some of the college basketball teams will start playing games--I mean, for real. There may already have been some regular season games. (That's in addition, of course, to the one or two exhibition games a lot of schools are playing now.) And next year, the major league baseball play-offs are going to expand by about three days as they extend the division series from five to seven games. But of course, they won't consider rolling back the season from 162 to 154 games, the way it was when I was a kid! So the World Series will probably end in November! This year, the major college football schedules were expanded from eleven to twelve games, and the season started in late August. When I was growing up, a lot of teams--I mean, even the big ones like Alabama--didn't start the season until late September. And some of the big schools were still just playing nine games. And college basketball season started the first weekend in December! Of course, we know it's all driven by money. The TV revenue is huge. Extra ticket sales for additional games and post-season tournaments are also part of it. I'm not against money; and I enjoy the college football season as much as anybody, and more than most. But really now, is it too much? And does it help baseball to be playing the World Series in a cold, northern stadium in November--possibly with snow flurries in the air? And why do the TV networks and the major leagues and the NFL insist on putting some of their best games on the air when all the kids are sound asleep and all the grown men should be? No, I'm not disgusted with sports, and I don't plan to quit watching or quit picking the games. I plan to keep enjoying this diversion in my life because it's fun and I like it. At some point, however, shouldn't common sense return to sports in America? I don't see anything immoral about it--but I do remember something about "bread and circuses."