EPSN used to broadcast college baseball game of week in 80s.it was sunday nights. then they got the nhl contract and let college baseball go. then after hockey they got the baseball contract.
Re: College Sports? i think that can be said about hardcore fans in all of the big 3 sports. the MLS caught the NBA in average attendance this year. The Cowboys saw a 200k +jump in attendance thanks to Jerry World's bigger capacity. The rest of the league saw a 340k +drop.
The thing is this: I feel like baseball's crowd will always be older. As older folks evolve, they pick it up. As I, myself, get older, I come to like the sport more. It's more gear to the working crowd. You can miss a game and not miss anything.
Id say football and basketball (and almost every sport other than boxing) are a lot more popular now than when our parents were kids. And statistically speaking, even college football is as popular as baseball when the northeast teams arent doing well. Im not saying we wont have baseball one day - its really just that we have more options these days than our parents did when they were little.
statistically speaking, college football is #2 in this country, behind the NFL. and I could probably make a good argument that it is ahead of the NFL. i understand what you're saying. I just truly think baseball is in much better shape than people are giving it credit. Attendance is strong. TV ratings are good. the influx of young stars in the making like Hayward and Strasmus are going to make the league even stronger.
and we are finally seeing tv giving college baseball more of a shot. the espn deal for showing regular season sec games this year. it has been a catch 22. need to televise more games to build more interest, but not enough interest (or so the networks thought) to televise games. if we can expand on this years sec/espn contract, i will be happy.
I'm not a big pro sports fan so I focus on the college game. While success with the LSU Baseball Team has pushed it into the spotlight here, there are probably 90% of the other baseball programs who would drool at having half the support we do. I mentioned to a Florida grad about the Gators being in the CWS and he said, "What, really? I didn't know." Be true to your school...
