The NCAA Basketball tournament know as March Madness is one of the most exciting sporting events to watch and bet on each year. College or pro, few tournaments can compete. It’s an American institution and the wagering handle each year is already huge and growing all the time.
Then we have the college football playoffs which will be taking a new form in the coming season. Far and away the most popular colligate sport in the land….and a still larger wagering handle. Ever played a football pool?
College basketball and football have each gained themselves places alongside their professional counterpoints and one would be hard pressed to say which is the more popular. The NFL, with its gross approaching ten billion bucks, is clearly the most profitable. However, colligate football and basketball pay the bills for many other sports activities that are not self supporting.
Major universities are receiving on average around twenty million dollars each in revenue, mostly generated by football and basketball. But what about college baseball?
The NCAA Super Regionals are in progress and down to the top10 teams in the country today, but I can find no mention of college baseball on CBS Sports.com, which provides exhaustive coverage of college football and basketball. This seems like a puzzling omission because when I clicked on the Gametracker on the Vanderbilt University webpage, I got the CBS Sports Gametracker. Go figure.
But the action out there on the baseball field in one of these rivalry playoff games can get just as intense, or even more so than in the majors. Remember that these kids are usually playing close to home with a loyal following of friends and family to cheer them on. You’ve just got to try that much harder when your Mom and Dad are in the stands.
There were some early heartbreakers as nationally ranked favorites such as Florida, LSU and Florida State were defeated in the early rounds of play. Then there were the surprises like the College of Charleston and tiny Kennesaw State. Both of these relatively unknown teams played some damned good baseball up against the most polished teams the big schools could offer.
Then there were the Ragin’ Cajuns of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the bearded ones from the Sun Belt Conference, who just happen to have the best win-loss record in the nation.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are just two wins away from breaking Florida States all time win record of 60. Geaux Cajuns!
