Georgia was the gift that kept giving last weekend.
Two ninth-inning errors gave away Friday’s game. Two wild pitches bailed out UF’s sluggish offense Saturday. Six consecutive walks turned a one-run contest into an eight-run blowout Sunday.
A season-high 14,619 fans came to McKethan Stadium to watch the three-game series, but even those wearing orange and blue could not feel satisfied with the results. Sure, No. 4 UF got its fourth sweep of the season, but how the Gators got that sweep was troubling.
It was the least fun series of the season. Seeing the Bulldogs give away game after game was just sad. Even UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan admitted Sunday’s choke job was tough to watch.
The Bulldogs will improve. They lost a record 11 players to the draft last season and are just two years removed from a runner-up finish in the College World Series.
But what if they don’t get better? What if they stay in the Southeastern Conference cellar for years? Should SEC fans settle for one boring matchup per season?
No. College sports should take a cue from Europeans, who love soccer more than Americans love anything. Lives revolve around the sport, which is why Europeans rely on an entertaining relegation system rather than putting every team on equal footing.
The English football league system, for example, is divided into six levels. The 20 best clubs – the Arsenals, the Chelseas – play in the Premier League. But at the end of the season, the three last-place teams are relegated to the Football League Championship.
Likewise, three teams from the Championship are promoted to the Premiership while three more are relegated to the third-tier league. The result is an intense finish to the regular season, regardless of where your team ranks.
Europeans have their share of faults (imperialism, Vespa scooters, dental records), but club soccer is not one of them. Imagine how hard Georgia fans would have been cheering last weekend if their Bulldogs were fighting to not be relegated to Conference USA.
An NCAA relegation system would vary from sport to sport since each has a different number of Division-1 teams and conferences. But, for the sake of this column, let’s look at baseball.
The 301 Division-1 baseball teams would be divided into four groups: southeast, southwest, northeast and northwest. Within each quadrant, teams would be divided into four levels. The top-tier conferences would have 16 teams while the three lower conferences would each contain 20 squads.
In the southeast, for example, the premier teams compete in the SEC while the other 60 teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Sun Belt Conference and the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Then, at the end of the season, four teams from the ACC get promoted to the SEC and four bottom dwellers are relegated. The four best teams in each conference also advance to a tournament, with the first-tier teams competing for the national championship.
The national champions are granted immunity from relegation the next season, and the lower-level tournament winners cannot be relegated the next season, preventing those teams from mailing in the postseason.
And with a relegation system, smaller schools would have an easier time building a strong program. Imagine No. 5 Coastal Carolina replacing last-place Georgia in the SEC next season.
That would be a gift fans could really appreciate.
