Another week, another Dustin Connell victory, his second Redcrest Trophy. He’s not yet 34 and the force that seemingly prevents him from becoming the undisputed, best angler at the Bass Pro Tour is that he has to compete against his best friend, Jacob Wheeler. With no disrespect intended to any of the other competitors, sometimes it just seems like the two of them should flip a coin before blastoff to decide who should take home that week’s loot and accolade.

There’s nothing inherently sad about seeing two competitors in any endeavor performing at an exceptional level. Right now, they’re Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, going head to head with the occasional Isiah Thomas or Patrick Ewing throwing a temporary wrench into the works. What is sad, however, is that we don’t get a chance – and may never get a chance – for some sort of unifying belt.

I understand that the anglers who left BASS had their own personal and business reasons for doing so. I have no problem with that, just as I have no problem with those who had the chance to leave but elected to stay.  My problem – and it’s a personal one – is that we may never get a chance to see certain anglers, still in their primes, compete against one another over the course of a season. More importantly, we won’t get to see them compete against each other over the course of a decade. Don’t you want to know how Connell and Wheeler would do against Milliken and McKinney? Or Michael Neal versus Brandon Palaniuk?

In the end, we may have one, two, or three major circuits, but we won’t have anything approaching unanimity about what the numbers mean. It makes for great barroom debates but not much else for the fans. Sometimes it feels like more is less.