Why Isn't the College World Series More Popular?

I'm watching the College World Series tonight and wondering why this isn't a big deal? Think about this for a second. Baseball is our national pastime. College sports are as popular as they've ever been. So why isn't the College World Series as celebrated as their football and basketball counterparts? The Big Dance and the BCS National Title Game are must-see viewing so why isn't the College World Series appointment viewing as well. Let me offer a few ideas...

1. Players - A lot of the best young baseball players are drafted out of high school and don't play in college, or they come to MLB internationally. Think of all of the great stars of the game and how relatively few of them came through the college system compared to football and basketball. A lot of the guys featured in the CWS are still in college because they aren't good enough to pursue an MLB career yet so we aren't seeing the best of the best. Also, the stars of the CWS usually disappear into the minors for at least a year so we forget about them before they reappear in MLB.

2. Format - Let's be honest, while everyone hates the BCS at least it's easy to understand. In basketball, everyone and their great grandmama loves to fill out a bracket. Does anyone out there even know how the college baseball postseason works? From regionals to super-regionals to the actual World Series (with 8 teams), what exactly is going on here??

3. Regional Sport - Most of the successful college baseball programs are from the South and the West. LSU and Texas are playing tonight and then you have perennial powers such as CS Fullerton and Rice, not exactly marquee names on the national landscape. Without a big baseball presence in the North and the East, there isn't a lot of media coverage which exists for baseball like basketball and football.

4. No Shining Moments - Go ahead and tell me one memorable moment from a College World Series. Fresno State winning last year was a nice story but it wasn't Villanova beating Patrick Ewing, or the 2002 Buckeyes upsetting the Hurricanes. There are no buzzer beaters or classic games such as the Leinart-Young duel at the Rose Bowl that stick out in the memory from the CWS.

Those are just a few of my ideas, what are yours? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. Tell us if you have any thoughts of your own as to why the CWS isn't as popular as it should be, or if you think I'm way off base, or out in left field on this one, get it? I crack myself up...