Yeah there’s absolutely no buzz nationally for college baseball. It catches a little interest once Omaha arrives, but popularity is not growing.
It's kind of hard to get interested in baseball when it's below freezing.
Exactly. I have friends that are grads from Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan St, Nebraska and Ohio St and they all say the same thing. The weather is not their friend for baseball.
100%. I lived in Ann Arbor for a year back in '05, and we got 10 inches of snow in mid-May. Northern climates just don't mesh with college baseball's desire to start the season in late February
Ok that’s the excuse for northern schools. What about schools like Miami, Arizona State, Stanford that average 1-2k fans a game?
This isn’t true with college football & basketball. You personally may not like where it’s headed, but nearly every SEC, Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 football stadium this fall will be full.
Those schools don’t really care about anything bc of location.
I think the deal is there's tons of stuff to do in those areas, in the spring, there are few options for other things to do in Starkville, Oxford, BR or Fayetteville.
The college football structure sucks but it’s as popular as ever.
That excuse doesn't prevent them from caring about lacrosse, field hockey, football, etc.
Interesting. So what you’re saying is since Mississippi State ‘cares’ more about a niche sport than other D1 schools, we are more successful.
im talking about the fans.l bc you pointed to attendance. But as to your point we can care all we want in FB but our opponents with bigger programs, more money and more history will always care as much as we do so that only goes so far. Our success in FB is tied to 1 thing. Hiring a good coach.
Agreed. Cohen completely overthinking the hire in 2020, moving away from Sarkisian to hire Leach will go down as one of the biggest what ifs in MSU history. For about 12 hours I remember Paul Jones saying Sark was the guy and I was super excited.
Hopefully Selmon fixed it. It will either be a Jenious move or first major fail as an AD. I am worried about our HC decision for DC. You have to play good defense in the SEC. That's a must.
Football is strange because less kids seem to be playing (similar to baseball) and the concentration of power exists there too. But it’s the bear in the room, and the real American past time now. Plus, they’ve pushed flag football, which is growing, and producing fans.
I haven’t seen many reasons not to do this, but except that it messes up summer ball, and gives the southern schools less of an advantage. But we need to look at the overall health of the game. I mean the MLB season goes through late October and college ends in June?? That’s a glaring difference.
The 12-team playoff will really help reverse all this disgust people have. More fanbases will have hope, and later into the season.
Agreed. The only thing I can think of in Cali is that the middle class, who plays all the baseball, has moved out. But that should not be the excuse for AZ.
Agree. But most people also vastly underestimate how many fans just show up to games. They don’t keep up with all of this like we all do. They just want to see kids run out of the tunnel in maroon and white.
It’s hard when the season starts in February and it’s 28 degrees outside and snowing.
Agree. There’s no reason there shouldn’t be a dozen top 40 teams in that region every year. This year there are 3 in the top 60.
If the sport keeps growing, I’m fine too. I’m curious if it actually will though.
I don’t see college baseball growing for a few reasons.
You aren’t totally wrong, though I don’t see the immediate doomsday scenario. While we can, I say let’s be winners as long as we possibly can, since we’re still getting SEC money from football, no matter how well we do. And the big breakaway won’t happen in our lifetimes.
1. With NIL and the elimination of scholarship limits (part of the NCAA settlement is no more scholarship limits), this will be less of an issue. It already is to some extent as players realize it's a lot easier life to spend 3 years in college playing in front of big crowds in nice stadiums with less travel than spending 3 years in rookie league and Class A.
Even before NIL, people were starting to figure out that playing college baseball was a better path to the MLB. NIL makes it a no-brainer unless you are offered the big contract.
Those are all in pro sports dominated markets. They don't draw that well for college football either.
They don’t have big crowds for football (unless they’re really good) and you want them to be that way for baseball? Miami has a pretty nice stadium if I remember right. A-Rod gave them a bunch of money.
You realize a lot of those numbers are the schools building and updating their facilities right? We've already done that.
