Where are all the college baseball fans?

Football and basketball rule the pocketbooks of universities, and rightly so, they attract thousands upon thousands of fans.

But what about college baseball?

It's been relegated to a status lower than minor league baseball even though it has produced some of the game's brightest stars.

I would assume that college baseball hasn't quiet earned the respect that football and basketball have because:

1. Minor and major league baseball tickets are much more affordable than their football and basketball counterparts, and games are much more frequent, so why go to a college game when you can usually find the pros playing in a town near you (Seriously, they have a minor-league team in Missoula, that means there HAS to be a town near you.)

2. Think it's bad now in college basketball with kids going one and done? The much less-important MLB draft has a pretty strong mixture of high school and college prospects. And here's the catch - probably the most talented kids go directly to the minor leagues but that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be a success in the pros - but the risk could prove to be a huge payoff. So college baseball loses some of its best young prospects to the draft and then the college kids who get drafted, usually end up in the minor leagues and once they actually make the big leagues you've forgotten they've even played in college.

3. It's baseball, there's no big singular game like football that causes Lou Holtz to spit out his dentures. It's a season-long process and no one pays attention until Super Regionals and the College World Series.

So for the most part, college baseball takes a back seat and that's why some major schools don't even have baseball programs. Which is a shame - I remember feeling cheated when EWU didn't have a NCAA baseball program after being a Pac-10 member in the 1980s.

Perhaps its this feeling that has caused Casey and I to go baseball crazy. Casey is interested in the University of Oregon's baseball team, and I'll definitely keep you updated with the Cougs, Zags and Whitworth.

And don't forget the Spokane Indians and Riverhawks too. We'll cover them with weekly updates as well.