The best college basketball players usually go straight to the NBA, the best college football players go straight to the NFL. Why is it that many of the best college baseball players first go to the Minor Leagues and then the Major Leagues? Is competition much greater in baseball than the other two?

Babba06

Interesting but complicated question. Basically the Minor League and the Major League have a required association with each other of bringing a certain number of players up or down the leagues to fufill the Major League lineups. College players who excell at baseball will more than often start in Minors so to be "farmed" into the best possible Major league position for them. I realize also that some people will be able to give a better explanation than I just did. This Wiki site explains it but it is also a bit confusing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_league_baseball May 27 06, 8:41 PM

bigponder

There are no high-calibre minor league professional basketball or football leagues. College teams, by default, have become minor league farm systems for the NBA and the NFL, which benefit greatly from this system. Because any good baseball player can go directly into the minor leagues, the only ones who decide to go to college are those who are truly interested in getting an education. In basketball and football most players, except for the rare phenom who is regarded as a prodigy in high school, have to go the college route - whether they are true scholars or not. Those guys in football and basketball who, by necessity, are at college to play and not to study should get paid the equivalent of what minor league baseball players get. God knows, the universities make enough money off them. May 27 06, 10:26 PM