# Why isn't college baseball popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 7, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679 "2009-11-07T03:15:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/21 "2009-11-08T16:54:13Z")
Omniscient writes: \> Baseball when played poorly is a chore to watch, basketball and football even \> when played poorly are fairly entertaining. Is this really the general opinion? I’ve heard people claim that minor-league baseball is pretty interesting. ---
**Author:** ![TheBoltEater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheBoltEater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoltEater)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/22 "2009-11-09T23:57:03Z")
Out here on the West Coast, there are any number of truly excellent college baseball teams, but we don’t get anywhere near the attendance they pull in the Southeast. I don’t think it’s a stretch to presume that teams in Oxford, Mississippi or Baton Rouge, Louisiana have an easier time bringing in the locals than do schools in Los Angeles or Orange County, CA. It’s certainly nice to be the only game in town. There’s no doubt that college baseball lags far behind football and basketball, but it actually is getting more attention than it ever did in the past. There are a couple of cable tv channels now that focus exclusively on college sports, and that seems to be helping baseball’s exposure - which is not to say it will ever catch up to the other sports, cause it is FAAAR behind. I’d also throw out this thought - the best college basketball and football players immediately become stars in the NBA and NFL (even if they aren’t as good as we hope). The NFL draft has become an amazingly big TV event as we all watch to see who our favorite teams will snatch up. This, however, is absolutely NOT how it works in baseball. Even the best college baseball players don’t show up on an MLB roster until an entire year after they are drafted; and most linger in the minor leagues for upwards of 4 or 5 years before they break into the bigs, if they ever do at all. It’s a far cry from seeing Blake Griffin lead Oklahoma to the NCAA tournament in March, get drafted in June, and suit up for the Clippers in their summer league by July. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/23 "2010-02-23T17:33:30Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Baseball is unique in that it’s really the only American sport where players are drafted and developed directly out of high school. It’s more like hockey in that way than either football or basketball. Many great baseball players developed this way, perhaps even most, but there are few who speak glowingly of watching baseball prospects develop. Baseball when played poorly is a chore to watch, basketball and football even when played poorly are fairly entertaining. > > It’s also worth noting that professional baseball is an older game than either football or basketball. Professional teams were present in most of America years before the NFL or NBA had expanded into some of the second tier cities and the west coast. Due to that market penetration baseball is simply associated with the MLB. It’s much more of an either/or situation with the other two sports because the college game grew alongside the professional one as opposed to in it’s shadow. I recently noticed that players entering MLB with NCAA experience didn’t outnumber those whose experience was limited to high school until 1961. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/24 "2010-02-23T20:22:17Z")
> [@TheBoltEater](#): > > I’d also throw out this thought - the best college basketball and football players immediately become stars in the NBA and NFL (even if they aren’t as good as we hope). The NFL draft has become an amazingly big TV event as we all watch to see who our favorite teams will snatch up. This, however, is absolutely NOT how it works in baseball. Even the best college baseball players don’t show up on an MLB roster until an entire year after they are drafted; and most linger in the minor leagues for upwards of 4 or 5 years before they break into the bigs, if they ever do at all. It’s a far cry from seeing Blake Griffin lead Oklahoma to the NCAA tournament in March, get drafted in June, and suit up for the Clippers in their summer league by July. That’s my take on it, too. You can watch a guy crush heads for 4 years at UGA and then watch him the very next season in the NFL. Same with basketball. In baseball, I don’t even bother to get any bit of excitement out of the draft. We might pick up someone who’s The Shit in college and he’ll go play for a minor league team we have that’s nowhere near where I live, then bounce around the other minor league teams (some near me, some not)…and at the end of all that there’s only a small chance that we’ll actually see him playing for US and not traded out of our AAA team for someone who’s already in the majors (plus a bag of balls). I’d be in to college baseball if it was all I had - say if I lived in the part of the south that’s even out of the BRAVES viewing area - but up here in Cleveland I have real baseball (shut up) and plenty of good minor league baseball. No room in my brain for college. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/25 "2010-02-24T05:07:57Z")
I live in the part of the United States which has good college baseball, Arizona. I’ll watch from time to time but since there is spring training here and a MLB team, I just don’t have the time to follow ASU as much as I would. Also, during college baseball season is the end of college basketball, the Masters golf, and the NBA and NHL playoffs. Just too much crowding out during the heart of the college baseball season. I do try to watch as much of the college World Series as I can. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/26 "2010-02-24T05:21:45Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I’ve heard people claim that minor-league baseball is pretty interesting. Interesting more as a showcase for individual players rather than team play. Putting aside the wonderful minor-league stadium experience–often a homespun, throwback venue specifically designed to contrast with the wealthy, media-saturated majors–fans IMO get the most out of a minor-league game when they concetrate on one or two well-regarded players and ignore the scoreboard. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/27 "2010-02-24T13:43:45Z")
Baseball was, more or less, professional first and collegiate second. Football and basketball come from collegiate roots, but eventually garnered a large professional following. On most college campuses the students follow football and basketball (depending on the school, mostly in that order) and then possibly baseball or hockey (is there any school that has a good hockey AND baseball team?). They are second tier sports on campus, bigger than most other sports, but generally not as followed as the big two. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/28 "2010-02-24T15:29:12Z")
“the MLB” sounds funny to me, much like how “the NASCAR” would sound. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Is this really the general opinion? I’ve heard people claim that minor-league baseball is pretty interesting. The idea being that college baseball is noticeably more poorly played (and thus more of a chore to watch) than minor league baseball. ---
**Author:** ![TheBoltEater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheBoltEater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoltEater)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679/29 "2010-02-27T05:25:25Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > ::snip:: …is there any school that has a good hockey AND baseball team? ::snip:: Michigan. Legendary hockey program, and in baseball they’ve won 2 national titles and been to the College World Series 7 times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-college-baseball-popular/516679.md?page=1)