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WRITER |
PREDICTIONS |
| Baseball |
Tom Verducci |
Instant replay is used for postseason games. The DH rule is repealed after the four-hour, 10-9 game becomes a colossal bore. |
| Pro Football |
Peter King |
A Colts dynasty. Go out on a limb, why don't I? GM Bill Polian buys a safety and linebacker in free agency this year, hangs onto a great nucleus, and the Colts win the Super Bowl next season. Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James and those receivers? Like shooting fish in a barrel. |
| College Football |
Ivan Maisel |
The playoff will continue to shimmer in the distance, just out of reach, for the next 1,000 years. |
| Pro Basketball |
Phil Taylor |
No more kids. The league and the Players Association will find some way to stem the tide of teenagers turning pro early. A minimum age is a possibility, although it would likely be challenged in court. The apparent suicide attempt of Mavs rookie Leon Smith should be enough to convince both sides that action needs to be taken.
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| College Basketball |
Seth Davis |
Florida's Billy Donovan will spearhead the next generation of great coaches, which instead of featuring old legends and retreads will be comprised largely of young, dynamic men who can better relate to the younger players.
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| Hockey |
Michael Farber |
Within 15 years, the NHL will have a European division. |
| Golf |
Alan Shipnuck |
Championship courses will be 9,000 yards long by 2010, unless the sport's governing bodies come to their senses and throttle back the ball. That, and Tiger Woods will win a few more tournaments. |
| Tennis |
Jon Wertheim |
The tennis establishment will finally come to its senses, curbing runaway racket technology and restoring finesse at the expense of power.
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| Soccer |
Grant Wahl |
Champs in 2000 are ... Euro 2000: The Netherlands; Champions League: Barcelona; FIFA Club Championship: Corinthians; England: Leeds United; FA Cup: Chelsea; Spain: Real Zaragoza; Italy: Lazio; Germany: Bayer Leverkusen; U.S.: D.C. United
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| Track and Field |
Tim Layden |
Either blood testing will become mandatory -- separating the dirty athletes from the clean ones -- or the sport will disappear. Track and field needs some means to ensure a rightly suspicious public that it isn't a cesspool of illegal drugs, and that its competitors are the best pure athletes in the world. Without this assurance, and soon, it might as well be professional wrestling without the cool characters.
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| Motor Sports |
Ed Hinton |
A house-divided. American open-wheel racing will continue to wither until it is no longer a major form of motor sports, leaving the U.S.'s NASCAR and the world's Formula One tour as the only major leagues. |
| Women's Sports |
Kelli Anderson |
Women's sports will be regularly featured on television -- or on whatever high-tech medium replaces it -- and female athletes will start making the kind of money that reflects their increased popularity. But we won't see a single incident in which a player chokes a coach.
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| Boxing |
Richard Hoffer |
Don King will elude the feds, boxing will sidestep reform, Lennox Lewis will be stripped of two of his three championship titles, and Oscar De La Hoya will announce he has signed a recording contract. |
