As I sit here on the beautiful campus of the University of North Carolina preparing for a college baseball broadcast between the Tar Heels and Georgia Tech, I am thinking about the future of college baseball.

This year for the first time, college games have received national TV attention during the regular season. With the NHL locked out, the ESPN networks, for which I broadcast games, turned to the college game for events.

The timing for ESPN was ironic. While the network did not want the NHL to go down, it came during the year when ESPNU was launched.

The offshoot of the mother ship will carry college events of every kind. With no NHL to go on ESPN or ESPN2, some of the college baseball games have made it there as well.

The schools which have garnered air time have been ecstatic. For years, college baseball has toiled in the shadow of football and basketball. The broadcasts have shed some sun on the college game that was not there before.

College baseball has long had the College World Series as its shining moment. The event has become enormously popular with fans because there is still a breath of innocence and amateurism to the game.

That may be more in the mind than reality, but the feeling is there anyway. Regular season college baseball has an even enhanced old-time feel.

The games played on college campuses are usually in older stadiums with limited seating and the confines are close. There is a relaxed atmosphere with fans talking to players and coaches on fields surrounded by dorms and college unions.

Those who attend college games in Maine know the feel, and that doesn’t change a lot from campus to campus.

A major problem for college ball is the timing. The season comes with major league baseball under way and finishes when most students have gone home for the school year. It is tough to generate excitement for campus games when the students are gone.

The games themselves are generally good when the top teams in the country are involved. Mismatches in college games are no fun and there are too many of these on many schedules.

The length of the games can be 3 hours and that is too long. Relief pitchers, a lack of pitching depth, and aluminum bats can extend games far beyond enjoyment time.

For now, college baseball remains well behind football and basketball in attention from both the local and the national fans. With the increased exposure, it may draw closer and that will prompt a closer look by the NCAA at just what is going on in college baseball with schedules and the postseason.

For now, the magnolias are blooming, the birds are in the leafed trees, and the infield grass is green. I love this game.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.