What are Small Time Sports?

I will cover many different sports here at many different levels, from small-time high school games where the athletes aren't a whole lot better than rec league, all the way up to good college teams and various pro teams that are on the fringe of being big-time sports. When it comes to classifying college sports within the NCAA's Division I, former ESPN basketball writer Kyle Whelliston has defined the difference between major and mid-major sports as based on athletic budgets. An average athletic budget within a conference above 20 million is a "major", below that is a "mid-major".

For our purposes of creating a definition that includes multiple sports and multiple levels of play, we will go by attendance figures, which below the college level typically have to be estimated. I break down the levels of sports into six distinct categories of average attendance:

Level I: Average attendance is 10K or above.
Level II: Average attendance is 5K to 10K
Level III: Average attendance is 1K to 5K
Level IV: Average attendance is 500 to 1K
Level V: Average attendance is 100 to 500
Level VI: Average attendance is below 100

At Level I, the sporting event typically has broad appeal, bringing in fans with loose if any connections to the school or teams playing in the game. These games get widespread media attention at the local level and often some at the national level depending on the meaningfulness of the game. Level I games are always pretty much big-time sports, and will get little coverage here (although I will occasionally attend these games and talk about them from time to time).
Level II games often have broad appeal, but usually only within the community involved that surrounds the team, whether it be the local area with a pro team or the school with a college game. These games do get plenty of local media coverage, but not much national coverage. An exception would be Duke basketball, which is only Level II because Cameron Indoor Stadium seats 9,314 but gets more national coverage than just about any other college sports team, and is not an event ordinary people can get tickets to. Level II games are arguably big-time, but to mainstream sports fans it is most often small-time.
Level III games draw plenty of fans from different backgrounds, but they don't typically have anything near a big-time atmosphere and they don't usually have any national media coverage, and local media coverage exists but they don't exactly dwell on the event or the home team usually.
Level IV games rely on casual onlookers from the home team's community as well as the team's few diehard followers, who can be easily recognized from game to game. No national coverage, and local coverage varies depending on the meaning of the game.
Level V games usually consist of fans who know the participants at varying levels, although some of them are just fans looking for a casual game to watch at a local leevl. Level V games are pretty much the essence of what Small Time Sports are about.
Level VI games don't typically get more fans than those who know the partcipants well, although you have community members occasionally stopping by to see a game every now and then if they have some reason to care about it. This is the ultimate level of Small Time Sports, so small-time that I am probably only going to cover this level as much as I cover the truely big-time games.

Obviously certain sports have more events that are on average at higher levels. Pretty much all major league pro sports are Level I games, as the partcipants are very wealthy and thus are definitely big-time. Football, which is the most popular American sport, has plenty of Level I games, as virtually all NCAA Division I-A (FBS) games meet the criteria of Level I status. This in part due to the sport's popularity as well as the lack of multiple games in a week means that fans are packed in on a few occasions to see their team play, upping the status of each game. Even some Division I-AA (FCS) games are Level I, with most being Level II. Even below the Division I level there are very few college games below Level III, as even most high school games fit the Level III status. Some big-time high school programs even host Level II games, which shows how big football in the United States is.

In college basketball, only the major programs host Level I games. Most other Division I games are at Level II or Level III, with non-Division I games typically being Level III or more commonly Level IV, rarely Level V. High school games are typically Level IV.

Baseball attendance figures are usually lacking due to the number of games, and thus the number of regular fans at baseball games is typically small. Baseball at all levels has fewer fans than at football games, and outside the major pro level fewer fans than at basketball games as well. Minor league games are usually either Level II or III, with Division I baseball being either Levels III or IV, the biggest programs occasionally hosting Level II games and the smallest programs hosting Level V games. Below the Division I level, baseball games are either Level V or the dreaded Level VI. High School and American Legion games are usually Level V, but here in Sumter American Legion games have Level IV attendance.

Soccer, which is very popular worldwide but less so here in the U.S., ranges from Levels III to V at the college level. Due to the soccer's smaller schedule, not many Level VI games however exist for college soccer even at the lowest levels. Another Fall sport, Volleyball, tends to have similar attendance figures as well.

So there you have it. Make sure you attend a game below the Level III level sometime soon, especially if you don't know anyone in it. Just enjoy the game and see how well these guys can play, and take in the atmosphere at these smaller venues. Tonight I will attend a game in the Coastal Plain League, a league of college baseball players training in the summer using wood bats often for the first time. CPL games are either Level III or Level IV. I'll write about each game I go to, and in the case of rain later this week I will share some information on the venues that small-time games take place at throughout the Carolinas.