By DAN BICKLEY
The Arizona Republic

One day, a Super Bowl champion will be crowned on its ability to peer into the future. Coming soon, a World Series will be decided in July, and the most valuable players will be ballot-box stuffers and players who actually take the All-Star Game seriously.

Incredibly, in the 21st century, a couple of billion-dollar industries are priming themselves for tremendous embarrassment.

Of course, you expect this kind of folly from major league baseball and its wacky commissioner. One only hopes that Bud Selig understands what's at stake in handing the All-Star Game winner instant home-field advantage in the ensuing World Series.

After all, since 1982, there have been eight World Series that featured a Game 7, and the home team prevailed every time.

While it's certainly better than the sleepy alternative - the two leagues had simply alternated home-field advantage every year since 1903 - this new proposal could lend itself to some dicey situations:

What if fans elect a player who is extremely popular yet in the midst of a horrendous season, as they often did with Cal Ripken Jr.? And what if that player commits a key error that costs his league a nifty advantage come October?

What happens if a stud such as Randy Johnson decides it is better to nurse a sore back, as he did last season?

As you can see, there's a lot of juice riding on an exhibition game.

In the case of the NFL, you expect a little more clarity and reason. If nothing else, you don't expect a team to play 17 games and then watch a season circle the drain because of a coin flip.

But that's what happened to the Steelers last week in Tennessee. It could have happened in last year's Super Bowl, a game that seemed destined for overtime. It could have happened in the conference championships, except that neither game was close to a tie.

As parity consumes the NFL, the league must adopt a new way of settling tied games.

This season, a record 26 games have gone into overtime. That number will only continue to rise as the league becomes more and more homogenized.

Of those 26 games, 11 were decided on one possession, meaning the losing team never touched the ball. While that percentage is down from previous years, when it was about a 50-50 split, that's far too many losses determined by the flip of a coin.

Twice this season, a team scored on a drive at the end of regulation and then prevailed on the first possession of overtime. Playing defense on successive possessions at the end of a 60-minute game is an impossible assignment for the best of teams.

The Raiders lost twice in overtime without touching the ball. In other years, that could have cost them home-field advantage in the playoffs.

In Week 7 Detroit won a coin flip and scored on the first possession to beat Chicago. In their rematch five weeks later, Detroit won the coin flip again and Lions coach Marty Mornhinweg inexplicably gave the ball to the Bears.

Naturally, the Bears prevailed on their first possession, too, and Mornhinweg was about as popular in Detroit as imported cars.

Anyone who saw the Fiesta Bowl realizes the National Collegiate Athletic Association's way of settling ties is far more equitable. Anyone who saw Arkansas' 58-56 win over Mississippi in 2001 - the game was tied 17-17 after four quarters before stretching to seven overtimes - knows how exciting that system can be.

So take the college premise and tailor it to the professional game, such as giving each team a possession at midfield. Or require teams to score six points in overtime, thus avoiding the quick field goal and y'all drive home safely.

Just do something that doesn't require a piece of change. And hope that we have seen enough coin flips for one season.

After all, three of the past four NFL games played at Qualcomm Stadium went to overtime, the same building that will host Super Bowl XXXVII.

Have a nice day.