No alternate history or science fiction story is as far-fetched as this proposal: a European-style business model for a North American sports league.
If you don't follow soccer, you might not be acquainted with the idea of promotion and relegation. English soccer is the most famous example. The Premier League is the best league in the world. Below it exists the EFL Championship, roughly the equivalent of Triple A baseball. At the end of every season, the bottom-three teams of the Premier League are banished to the lower league-and replaced by the top teams in the Championship.
It's harder to imagine this system for some U.S. sports than others. Where would a bad NFL team go? Professional football teams don't maintain minor league affiliates. They retain the nearly good-enough players to fill out their practice squads. The USFL and XFL sometimes exist as lower-tier pro leagues. Certainly, either organization would love to suddenly boast the Chicago Bears. But everyone knows who the 33rd- and 34th-best football teams in America are: the Universities of Georgia and Alabama. So bad NFL teams go back to school? Rebuilding shouldn't mean adding French classes between tackling drills.
The NBA makes a little more sense. It has the 30 G League teams. Most of those teams would have to rebrand, however, before being eligible for promotion. If the Windy City Bulls, South Bay Lakers, and the Westchester Knicks all got bumped up to the NBA, there might be confusion.
This story is from the May - June 2023 edition of Sports Illustrated Kids.
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This story is from the May - June 2023 edition of Sports Illustrated Kids.
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