# Why is college baseball not that popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 25, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050 "2019-04-25T20:09:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/21 "2019-05-14T15:19:33Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > I have family in Chapel Hill/Durham, NC I’ve caught a couple Duke baseball games in February and March… it’s still a little chilly. The northern states must be miserable. > > I’m a baseball coach here in Canada and we can’t even get on the fields before May! I looked up the schedule for Michigan baseball. From mid February to Mid march they play all their games on the road in warm places like Florida and Calif. Their first home game is March 14th. Other northern teams probably do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/22 "2019-05-14T16:26:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Just thinking back to the time I was in college, baseball was _inconvenient_. The stadium wasn’t on the main part of campus, making it a task to get there. > > Plus, unless you were a hardcore baseball fan or some sort of total school spirit dork, there was almost always something more entertaining going on in/around campus than baseball, even if you didn’t have to hike a mile to get to the stadium. > > And finally, the post-season starts right as the school year ends for most students. > > Plus, there’s the perception that the best high school baseball players go to the minors rather than college (not necessarily true, but that’s the thinking) Yeah, you’re right and it’s hard for me to explain it. I guess busy planning spring break, going on spring break, making summer plans and arranging housing, and picking fall classes. And, of course that’s on top of the usual papers and exams, that baseball at FSU was really not on my radar even though I knew the teams were good. Plus, aside from the schedule, it never really got much coverage in the student paper. It’s easy to plan your Saturdays around football, especially with most games at night. College basketball was never a main interest of mine, but we’d go to a few games, student season tickets for both football and basketball were less than $100, so that made it easy to go see a Duke or UNC if I happened to be free. For baseball, I believe it was free admission with student ID or a very nominal charge and I’d pop in, sometimes just for a few innings as a change of pace on a nice day and I needed a break from studying. But, yes, social life certainly never revolved around baseball and we certainly never had pregame drinks beforehand. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/23 "2019-05-15T14:14:13Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > for a long time there was no limit to the number of BB games college teams could play. Which meant teams in warm weather states would play 100 games starting in early January. They finally changed that so games start in mid Feb. and the limit is around 60. That gives some help to teams in colder areas to compete for players and tourney slots. Pedantic mode: 56 regular season games (plus two games in the fall), not counting games played in Hawaii, and the first game can’t be before the first Friday after 2/12 (2/13 in leap years). Note that conference tournaments must end before Memorial Day, as that is the traditional day when the tournament bracket is announced (this year, at noon Eastern on ESPNU). ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/24 "2019-05-16T14:40:38Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Yeah, you’re right and it’s hard for me to explain it. I guess busy planning spring break, going on spring break, making summer plans and arranging housing, and picking fall classes. And, of course that’s on top of the usual papers and exams, that baseball at FSU was really not on my radar even though I knew the teams were good. Plus, aside from the schedule, it never really got much coverage in the student paper. > > It’s easy to plan your Saturdays around football, especially with most games at night. College basketball was never a main interest of mine, but we’d go to a few games, student season tickets for both football and basketball were less than $100, so that made it easy to go see a Duke or UNC if I happened to be free. > > For baseball, I believe it was free admission with student ID or a very nominal charge and I’d pop in, sometimes > just for a few innings as a change of pace on a nice day and I needed a break from studying. But, yes, social life certainly never revolved around baseball and we certainly never had pregame drinks beforehand. I hadn’t really thought about the number of games, but I think that also had a lot to do with why it wasn’t a big deal. Football was an EVENT- there were what… 6 home games back then, and they were always on the weekend, and usually either afternoon or night. Baseball games were all over the map- Wednesday nights, Fridays at noon, Mondays at 10:30 am, etc… and there were like 60 of them crammed into what seemed to be the second half of the second semester- between mid-February through mid-May. That’s 20 games a month, which works out to a game every day and a half, but in practice meant every day with gaps of a few days for travel. It’s hard to really get worked up about something that almost happens every single day, especially in college, when you’ve got so many other things going on. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/25 "2019-05-16T17:13:01Z")
Exactly. Here’s FSU’s schedule. While most of the games do fall on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, there’s also a bunch of games during the week. > **[Baseball](https://seminoles.com/sports/baseball/schedule/season/2018-19/)** > > Welcome to Florida State Seminoles Baseball. Get the latest schedule, news, stats and scores for FSU Baseball here. As you said, football is an event and attending or watching your team draws people who are there for the social aspect just as much as for the football. It’s fun to get dressed up in your college colors, perhaps have a few drinks, and enjoy all the ceremony associated with the game even if you don’t have much knowledge of the sport. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/26 "2019-06-11T04:09:19Z")
I’ve been following FSU baseball on Instagram, their first game in the college World Series isn’t until Saturday? I always hated the long gap between the end of football season and the bowl game, but at least there were finals and holiday stuff. If I was a student, the last thing I’d be doing is paying attention to college baseball in the middle of June. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/27 "2019-06-11T10:54:59Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I’ve been following FSU baseball on Instagram, their first game in the college World Series isn’t until Saturday? I always hated the long gap between the end of football season and the bowl game, but at least there were finals and holiday stuff. If I was a student, the last thing I’d be doing is paying attention to college baseball in the middle of June. I can assure you that Tallahassee is VERY interested in how the 'Noles are doing and, ironically, interest is up this year due to 11’s impending retirement and the ‘search’ for his replacement.\* - It’s Jr. is what everybody’s hearing. I don’t agree with the decision, but I think they had to give him a chance to fail just to give the next guy a fair shot at not having to be ‘not Mike Martin’. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/28 "2019-06-11T18:15:55Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > I can assure you that Tallahassee is VERY interested in how the 'Noles are doing and, ironically, interest is up this year due to 11’s impending retirement and the ‘search’ for his replacement.\* > > - It’s Jr. is what everybody’s hearing. I don’t agree with the decision, but I think they had to give him a chance to fail just to give the next guy a fair shot at not having to be ‘not Mike Martin’. Ok, excellent. I’ve gotten more interested in FSU baseball and basketball since I started following the teams on Instagram. I’ve also gotten more active with the alumni group here. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050/29 "2019-06-11T22:40:03Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > I’m sure there have been some, but I can’t think of a single baseball player who played college ball and didn’t make at least a stop in the minor leagues. The three I thought might have, Lou Gehrig, Rick Monday, and Mark McGwire, all played at least a few games on a minor league team. Bob Feller skipped both college and the minors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-college-baseball-not-that-popular/833050.md?page=1)