The impact on sports of President Barack Obama

Barack Obama is going to be the 44th President of the United States. How is that going to impact the sports world? Well, the capital gains tax is likely to be increased, which could mean a rapid sell off of a number of sports franchises. But what else?

1. A college football playoff system – On Monday Night Football, during one of his final chances to impress the nation, Obama took the time to talk about something that is very dear to sports fans, a college football playoff. He recommended an 8-team playoff. “I think it is about time we had playoffs in college football,” Obama said. “I am fed up with these computer rankings.”
   
   Please, let’s make this happen. Just using the top eight in the current BCS standings the first round games would be: #1 Alabama v. #8 Utah, #2 Texas Tech v. #7 USC, #3 Penn State v. #6 Oklahoma and #4 Texas v. #5 Florida. Who would not want to see those match ups? Every sports fan would be salivating, especially when Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow took the field against each other.
   
   
2. Chicago receiving the 2016 Olympics – The city of Chicago already appeared to have the inside track to receiving the 2016 Summer Olympics (due to the once a generation in North America rule), but Obama’s prominent international stature can only help the city. As early as June Obama had said that he would like to wrap up his second term as president with the Olympic Games in Chicago in 2016. Now he had an even better platform to see that dream become a reality.
   
   Obama could impact another Olympic change according to The Canadian Press. He could help bring baseball back to the Olympics. America’s pastime was dropped from the Olympic slate after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but IOC organizers will consider adding baseball back into the Olympics in October. During the last vote, baseball missed reinstatement by just four votes, anyone think that might change a second time around?
   
   
3. Better recruiting for Oregon State basketball – Craig Robinson is the newly hired head basketball coach at Oregon State, a team that finished 6-25 and did not win a Pac-10 game all season. Robinson is also the brother-in-law of Obama. My guess is that playing basketball with the President of the United States, who was a high school varsity player himself, would be a pretty attractive recruiting pitch.
   
   
4. The continued oppression of the Cubs – As if not winning a World Series title in 100 years was not enough, now the Chicago Cubs have to deal with the fact that White Sox fan is going to be in the White House. Obama once said according to an ESPN transcript, “You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball.” Don’t expect any more night games at Wrigley Field anytime soon.
   
   
5. More sports advertising – It was already well known that sports advertising helps launch television shows, but apparently it works for political campaigns as well. Obama spent an estimated $5 million on advertisements during the Beijing Olympics and ran 7,416 “Obama for President” commercial units in live sporting events according to Nielsen. That includes 1,081 spots during NFL games alone. Sports has the ability to reach across a wide swath of the American public, and Obama proved that it can be an important advertising vehicle for more important things than Josh Weldon’s newest creation or Diet Pepsi.
   
   Sports advertising already is a pretty lucrative business. In September NBC announced that it has already sold 85 percent of its available spots for 2009 Super Bowl with prices rumored to be around $3 million for a 30 second spot.

Are there any other ways Obama's presidency will impact sports?