NIL is about to usher in the Golden Age of SEC baseball popularity & fan base growth

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Don't kid yourself. Baseball sux

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artompkins

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Alabama Fan

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Minor league baseball has a lot to lose when it comes to the powers of the NCAA being restricted.

College teams should be able to draw more fan attention than local minor league teams, and the current minor league pay may not be enough to combat scholarship+Room and board + NIL deals, etc

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Baseball sux

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Found the tuba player.

It's about to usher the end of collegiate athletics as we've known and loved.....

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it will never be fun to watch.

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You never swung a bat, put on pads or dribbled a ball in all your life. You reek of it. Now go have "fun" honey.

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And every school in the conference should be able to capitalize. I expect the sport to expand tremendously in popularity once the best HS players realize they can get paid and have far better training facilities and lifestyle on campus and still make bank. I’m guessing attendance increases proportionally as these top kids make the decision to go to college instead of into the minor leagues and 10 years from now and this league becomes a monster with tremendous fan support and interest- the kind LSU /MSU etc have had for decades. Prepare for us to troll you by calling your school a baseball school every now and again as your school lures the big names in. Yes even you Bama.

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Makes sense up to a point. But then you have to actually watch the games. Ugh!

I use to love watching and playing baseball as a kid. Baseball to me isn't as exciting as it once was, just not enough action, and yes I understand the chess game being played behind the scenes. Whether pro or college, the excitement level for fanbases is almost always linked to the team having anything to play for.

The excitement is gone because it’s all or nothing for most hitters which is about as boring as possible to watch. Few teams no how to or even attempt to manufacture runs. That is why you are seeing very high strikeout totals and more no hitters. Hitters are taught to elevate the ball instead of more level, contact swings. Pitchers are trained for power and velocity which is great for home run production but turns into a very boring all or nothing at bat

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Youth participation is plummeting and it is very expensive to play. Travel baseball is killing the sport due to cost and commitment

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This is just dead wrong, I’m sorry. I coach a travel baseball team and do lessons for a big travel ball organization. It’s definitely a completely different world than the old Dixie youth/dizzie dean, Rec league then all star tournament days. Definitely different, is it better? Yes I believe so. There is soooo much more resources and facilities to help these kids grow at a young age, also daddy ball, aka daddy coaches is a thing of the past, now your kids will be coached by younger more energetic guys who actually played college baseball and have zero favoritism.

For $200/month you can join our organization and be on a team, for $30/month you can join the facility, and just take advantage of the amenities if you just wanna play rec league but want the new age amenities. If you are on a team, unless you are playing at the highest level, top 5% of kids or less, every tournament is local, and there are multiple local options per weekend. Tournament costs usually run you $300 per team, so on average about $30 per family, guaranteed 3 games, up to 5-6. We offer free classes every day to members after school as well.

So to join a competitive “travel” team (90% of tournaments are within 30 min), get the amenities of an indoor facility(15+ cages, 5 bullpens, indoor and outdoor turf fielding area), free classes, access to discounted lessons, 3ish tournaments a month so atleast 9 games up to 18, 8 guaranteed practices, you get all this for:

Organization fee- $200
3 tournaments- $90
TOTAL- $290

That’s not a bad deal at all $290 for all of that, especially if your kid is serious about it and you want him to play high school ball.

Also, participation is not down at all, sure, there is rec that is still available but if your kid is good and serious about it would u want him to be playing at that level in the first place? The amount of competitive local “travel” teams around my area, say within 30 minutes, is more than you could ever play in multiple years.

At first I was against it, approached it with the get off my lawn, that’s not how we did it in my days BS, but I’ve been around it for years and it is just a better model, these kids get developed so much more and that’s what it’s all about. And it’s time to quit calling it travel ball; like I said, the large majority of travel ball teams literally don’t travel, maybe once per fall and spring season, that’s what I do, but just as a fun bonding experience for the kids, but is it necessary to travel, ever? Absolutely not.