MVN - Most Valuable Network

Networks drop ball on North Carolina-Miami baseball matchup

When second-ranked North Carolina travels to Coral Gables, FL, to visit top-ranked Miami for a three game set, college baseball fans will be in for a real treat.

That is, if they actually get to watch it.

All three games will be televised.

Regionally.

That’s right. Regionally. As in not nationally.

Welcome to college baseball. The Rodney Dangerfield of Division I athletics.

I really don’t understand why college baseball gets absolutely no love whatsoever. I realize that baseball’s not the most TV-friendly sport out there. We all know that. But the college game is actually easier to watch than its MLB counterpart.

Granted, the skill level is not top-tier, but we saturate our fall and winter with college football and basketball. Most of these athletes won’t be playing at the professional level anytime soon.

Unless you attend USC, where a letter of intent apparently doubles as a pro contract.

My cable subscription includes ESPNU and CBS College Sports. Which means that during baseball season I see a fair amount of college basketball retrospectives, women’s softball and men’s lacrosse.

Dude…

I also have a Midwest FSN affiliate. Which brings me back to the not-so-national but very regional coverage of a three-game series featuring two ACC baseball powerhouses. I guess I’ll have to follow the games on GameTracker.

Again.

This is frustrating. ESPN, CBS and FOX have a vast number of resources and whole lot of nothing airing on their networks this time of year. We’re still months away from football season. College basketball’s over. The NBA Playoffs are dragging on and on and on.

Additionally, TBS no longer carries the Braves (this is simply ridiculous and not very funny), WGN has skimped on Cubs and White Sox coverage and my FSN Indiana affiliate broadcasts very few contests involving my beloved Reds.

My point is that there’s not exactly a glut of great sports clogging up the airwaves.

What’s sad is that the series wasn’t originally going to be televised. It hurts college baseball that the only real airtime it receives comes as a result of the College World Series. It’s like watching bowl games or the NCAA Tournament without having seen any football or basketball all year. You come in cold.

The Little League World Series receives better coverage than college baseball. Heck, the Spelling Bee does…

Is it possible that one cable sports network could step up to the plate before the College World Series? Would it be too much to ask?

Apparently so. Someone at one of the networks needs to dip into the smelling salts a bit and bring us more televised college baseball games.

And fast. I refuse to watch So You Think You Can Dance.

One last note to the networks: Not airing these games also makes things hard on a blogger like me. It’s difficult to cover a team I can’t see. But I realize that’s selfish.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under UNC Baseball, Diamond 'Heels, University of North Carolina Baseball, NC, Tar Heels, Miami Hurricanes, Team News (Baseball), College Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.