Not being a sports fan I really don’t know why any professional sport is that popular! 
But why is it that college football & basketball seem (to me anyway) almost as popular as the professional leagues to some sports fans, but college baseball is practically non-existent.
Is having the minor leagues the reason why college baseball isn’t really popular? If so, how come minor league baseball still isn’t as popular as college football & basketball?
Actually, college baseball is huge in a lot of areas. Football brings in the most cash, however, so you won’t see football programs cut due to Title IX anytime soon. Baseball programs tends to get the axe instead.
A lot of players play at least some college ball before hitting the minors. I would think it increases your chances of being drafted, and eventually playing in the bigs. One notable exception to that would be Jim Abbott, the one-handed pitcher who signed with the Angels straight out of high school, and picked in the first ten rounds. He got a $25,000 signing bonus, which he spent on some jewelry and a Mustang, which he drove until he made it to the big leagues.
Umm, Jim Abbott played baseball at the University of Michigan. And was quite good at it too. But he did go straight from Michigan to the Angels.
College baseball is not as popular as football and basketball for a variety of reasons:
The time of year it’s played: February through June. The Sun Belt schools can start their seasons early, which is why they have such an advantage. Conferences that are big in football and basketball, such as the Big 10 and Big East, aren’t that good in baseball because they can’t play as many games because it’s pretty hard to play baseball in February.
The nature of the game: College baseball is played with aluminum bats and has very high scoring games. These are also very long games. And often times they are very dull games as there isn’t a lot of parity in college baseball.
(Obligatory Hi, Opal!)
Historically, the very best players in MLB haven’t played in college. That has changed in recent years with guys like Seaver, Bonds, Clemens. But you don’t find Dominicans in college baseball. You won’t find Japanese in college baseball. A good college team will have one stud pitcher and about 9 guys who are OK. Maybe 1 or 2 pitchers will make it to pro ball (let alone the majors). But even the best college players don’t receive the same sort of publicity as college football and basketball stars.
The reason for #4 is that there is little TV coverage of college baseball. ESPN and CBS show the College World Series, but regular season games show up here and there on regional cable channels. But how many people have ever sat down and watched one from beginning to end. I have seen very few and I am a baseball junkie.
The marketing of Minor League Baseball seems to indicate that the only way you will get people to come to see those games is to have an unending string of weird promotions. It’s a lot harder to get sponsorship for that on the collegiate level.
How many of us who went to college know where the school’s baseball diamond is located. I went to UCLA and I know it’s off campus. I imagine that’s the case in a lot of places.
That all said, college baseball does draw big crowds in places where it’s the only game in town: Hawai’i, LSU, Mississippi State, U of Texas. But in the Pac-10, where some of the best baseball is played, the crowds are usually only around a 1000 people with the exception of some games at Arizona State and Arizona.
There’s also tradition. College football (the NFL was formed to employ ex-college players) and basketball (The NCAAs started in 1939; the NBA after WWII, and it wasn’t big until the 60s)) were big before the pros got established. College baseball was never a big deal, especially since the good players usually passed up college to play in the minor league.
A little historical perspective is in order:
College football was an immensely popular spectator sport long BEFORE there was an NFL. College basketball was a very popular spectator sport long BEFORE there was an NBA. Indeed, it would be fair to say that in those sports, professional leagues were an outgrowth of the college programs. In the early days, the NFL tried to make a name for itself precisely by signing men who’d been famous stars in college.
It was different in baseball. Professional baseball was widespread and popular long before intercollegiate baseball programs were widely established.
But colleges have been playing baseball against each other for a long time. The Ivy League schools have played against each other since the early days of baseball.
But the big difference is that there was no official college championship until the 1940s. Prior to that, college baseball was a rather informal affair. It was more like, “Hey, you over there at State U, do you want play us from Tech in a game?”
My theory has something to do with the pure quantity of pro baseball games - each team plays 162 games, right? That’s a LOT of games each season just at the pro (major league) level. You can find baseball on TV virtually any day if you’ve got cable. With that number of games, I think it’s just a matter of saturation of the market.
Pro football, of course, is only 2 days a week (well more now I guess). So you’ve got 4 or 5 other days in the week for college (Saturdays) and even high school (Fridays). And you still have days without football.
Basketball is somewhere between the two.
And let’s not forget - GAMBLING!
NCAA Football lends itself to gambling just as well as the NFL. The once a week games allow people to prepare for games by doing research or whatever, and gives people time to organize office pools.
The NCAA Basketball has March Madness. A one and out tournament that, again, lends itself to gambling and organizing office pools and such.
The College World Series doesn’t have the same qualities lending it to gambling.
Just to expand on what BobT said, it’s basically because you don’t see the stars of tomorrow while watching college baseball. Baseball requires such a complicated skill set, and so much of it is mental, that hardly anyone is a guaranteed superstar, no matter how well they’re doing in high school or college. Not so with basketball or football, where a massive height or speed advantage can get you into the pros, and everyone assumes you’ll pick up the nuances of the game as you get older. In baseball, that can’t be taken for granted.
Nitpick:
The Astros’ AA Club at Round Rock (just outside of Austin) pulls some serious crowds. Their stadium even has luxury suites.
Simply put, the overall quality of the talent and the overall quality of the game is low and no one wants to watch it on TV.
In my opinion, the beauty of baseball (even MLB) does not transfer well on television. You just gotta be there.
Express sucks, Missions Rule! (Sorry, I had to throw that in, no one else really cares about minor league baseball either and I saw an opportunity )
Probably the only gambling that is done on college baseball are bets to pick who wins the College World Series after the field of 8 is set.
Whether college or pro, baseball is hurt because it is can be subject to weather conditions, which is rarely the case for football and basketball.
The level of play between college and pro is great, but it’s more apparent for baseball, because it’s more individual performance than team.
Fans in the stadium. Perhaps because compared to the others, baseball is a slow game of leisure and tradition. Only the highest level of play can attract large numbers of fans.
+1
i always think of baseball outdoors a summer sport
but football (american) a fall/winter/spring event when college is in session
what on earth do the fair weather colleges do to get mud on the pitch.?