Tony Vitello: College baseball has turned into a monster

College baseball’s popularity has been on the rise over the past few years, and in the age of NIL and the transfer portal, some of these players and programs have taken on larger-than-life personalities.

Especially once the postseason hits, many turn their fandom toward the diamond. Rules put in place to help speed up the game has aided in this process, which isn’t lost on Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello.

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“I get it,” Vitello said. “The 20-second [pitch] clock has been productive. But I’m not so sure people wouldn’t come to the park anyway. Heck, everyone’s attention span is brutal because of what we hold in our hands all day long with our phones.

“But, man, this thing has turned into a monster. The draft is shorter. There’s fewer minor league teams. There’s more resources that these kids see. I don’t want any scouts to slash my tires, but it certainly makes sense for a lot of guys now to go on to school.”

Players featured in the College World Series this postseason such as Blake Burke, Christian Moore, Florida’s Jac Caglianone — even Texas A&M’s sophomore sensation Kaeden Kent have become familiar names for college baseball fans around the country because of how many eyes are on the action in Omaha over the past week.

In Tennessee’s case, they’ve been under a microscope all season long. Coming into the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, the Vols have been the team to beat throughout the postseason.

“A lot of it is because of the celebrities that I get to throw BP to, or that we get to stress about getting Charlie Condon out or whoever it might be,” Vitello continued. “So I think you could make [games] two and a half hours, you could make it four hours, which if it’s a big game, it’s probably going to be four with the commercials and all that BS. But I think you show up and you have your hot dog. If you want to have a beverage, have a beverage.

“And you yell stuff at me if you’re wearing maroon. And the orange people yell crazy stuff at the other team. I don’t know that you would want it any other way. Obviously we would have liked to get the win tonight, but pretty damn good stuff. But unfortunately we don’t get to enjoy it like you guys; we need to try to do our jobs. And we certainly need to do it better than we did tonight, at least I need to.”

The Vols ultimately fell to Texas A&M 9-5 in Game 1 of the College World Series championship series on Saturday night and will face elimination during the next outing. All eyes will be focused on Game 2, which is set for Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET.