Brownlow: Ideal rivalry matchups, college baseball ratings, Bojangles' controversy and more

By Lauren Brownlow, WRALSportsFan contributor

Another week without college football or basketball means another week closer to their return. But, college baseball is still going on. And in this week's Mailbag, we'll get into what could improve its ratings. Plus, we'll tackle Leaky Black's deal with the Hornets, ideal rivalry matchups (including coaches and locations) and Bojangles controversial shift away from ... chicken?

Let's get straight into it, shall we?

In case you missed it, the NBA Draft was this week. And if you did miss it, do yourselves a favor and go back and take a look at the brilliant fashion choices made by everyone. I love how this generation just GOES for it. I mean, Gradey Dick had to know he'd be getting destroyed on social media for his red sequined suit. Did he care? No. And one of the most conservative suits I remember seeing was all pink. The dudes sported gaudy jewelry proudly as well. Us older folks might look back on our generation fondly for some things, and I do, but I don't look back on the fashion fondly at all. Just Google any draft night from, say, 2001 through 2008 or so and you'll see what I mean. Those dudes were my age and wore suits 10 times too big for them with pants that could fit small families inside of them.

Anyway, this is about Leaky Black and his two-way contract with the Hornets. First of all, I am not at all surprised that he signed with an NBA team. I knew he wasn't likely to be drafted, but I knew he'd get picked up. Is that because I'm some sort of NBA expert? Far from it, but I do what people who don't have expertise on such things do: talk to others who do. And my NBA friends for a long time have told me that Leaky will find an NBA home.

Some of you might look at Leaky's college career and think, why? But those who paid close attention to his career and have good working knowledge of the NBA already know. The dude is VERY athletic and he's 6-foot-9, lanky and long. He's older, which works against him, but not as much as it would if a team was signing him to be a main piece. He's not that. What he is is versatile and capable. He can defend at least three spots in the NBA — maybe not as well as he did on the collegiate level, but he can — and he is a pretty good passer as well. He also came to Chapel Hill with built-in basketball savvy and just kept building on that. He's also shown he'll do whatever it takes for team success. He's never been a ball hog or a shot hog or anything like that. Oh, and he's a good rebounder.

So yeah, I'm not surprised a team would sign a player for a two-way contract with upside like that to be a bench contributor that could come in and hold things down. And for the uninitiated, a two-way contract means that a player is on the roster of both the NBA team and the G League team. NBA teams can still only dress 15 each night and the two-way player can only play in a maximum of 50 games for his NBA team, but it lets players develop at a lower level and teams continue to invest in them. It's a great thing for the league and it helps guys like Leaky get a foot in the door.

I took a quick Google and actually, college baseball ratings are up 28% over last year entering the College World Series' championship series, from 1.04 million a year ago to 1.33 this year entering the final series. Now, it's worth mentioning that the women's College World Series has been beating the men's in recent years, so if that's the concern, I mean, OK I guess. But women's softball is super fun and exciting. And I think it's enough like baseball but with enough differences that are kind of cool that make it so fun. So maybe college baseball is too close to actual baseball without being a high enough skill level for some people? I mean, I don't know. A lot of those guys will be playing in the major leagues, so that can't be it.

Women's basketball also gets double the viewers of the College World Series and its viewership only keeps growing. It's part of the reason why when people try to make the argument that each school's major sports are men's basketball, football and baseball, I push back and say women's basketball has to be higher than baseball.

I come into this a little bit jaded because I don't really care for baseball very much, although I do enjoy college baseball. But the sport as a whole can be frustrating as a viewer or a fan: even with the pitch clock, games can be lengthy, and not always in a fun way. Add in weather delays or a lack of them when necessary, and that makes watching difficult. Then there's the bunting! I'm kidding. Although a good number of you read that sentence and thought, YES! But viewers aren't as warm to baseball in general as they used to be anyway, and I think that's why ratings aren't what maybe you'd think they could be.

I think the fact that the postseason is in May and June actually works in college baseball's favor, though. Especially because it usually doesn't wrap up until after the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals are over. If it were in March, the ratings would be even lower.

This exercise, I think, combines a few too many things for my tastes. Because the fans enhance the experience of a rivalry game so much that it'd be hard for me to put them too far out of their geographical footprint. Or are we assuming we can fly the fans in? Probably too many assumptions. Although your suggestion here made me remember what a great time I had watching the Panthers and Bucs play at the Tottenham Hotspurs' stadium. That place was the coolest place I have ever seen a game on any level. I did have VIP section seats, so that probably played a big role. But the stadium was beautiful and state-of-the-art.

Most of my bucket list destinations to see a game are football fields: Lambeau Field, the Rose Bowl, South Bend, etc. But as great as college football rivalries are, I'm going to have to give an extremely boring answer: Carolina-Duke, early 1990s, at Cameron Indoor Stadium with coaches Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski. I was pretty young still when this rivalry was at its absolute peak (or one of its peaks) in the early 90s, and those are two of the greatest coaches to ever do it. Also, I'm assuming I'm on press row in this scenario. That would mean I'm hearing both coaches' conversations with the refs, some of their conversations with their players, and I'm hearing players trash talk each other. I mean, imagine having a courtside seat to watch Christian Laettner get under someone's skin?

So that's my choice. You might say it's boring. I still say it's the best choice. There is nowhere like Cameron to watch a Carolina-Duke game. The atmosphere is electric. As annoying as the in-game experience can be there with students almost literally on top of you, it's worth it for the high you feel getting to experience it.

Well let's not get TOO crazy here. That's not exactly what's happening. Even though that's the literal quote from the CEO. It does leave out the second part: he wants to get into the EXPERIENCE business. A bit of corporatespeak, but whatever.

Basically, in case you all missed this, Bojangles is testing different menus that no longer include bone-in chicken. But they'd likely include the supremes, which are basically chicken tenders. And ... I'm going to say something controversial here. But if you ask me to bring the best bone-in chicken to your gathering, and that's all I'm bringing? I'm sorry, but I'm going to Popeyes. That's not to say I don't like Bojangles — I do! A lot! And the bone-in chicken is ... fine. But it's not Popeyes.

What Bojangles DOES have a huge edge in over the other chicken joints is its sides. The dirty rice is superb. The cajun fries are top notch. The biscuits are great, and defnitely better than Popeyes. And a Boberry biscuit is so good that I am literally considering getting one right now, against my better judgment. I have literally gone to Popeyes for chicken and THEN gone to Bojangles to get the sides. Of course, I've also gone to Wendy's for a burger and then to McDonald's for fries, so that's just who I am.

But to me, this is the Bojangles' CEO understanding very well both the mystique of the brand locally and what it could potentially expand with nationally. He knows the strengths of his company. And those strengths are sides and not bone-in chicken. I said what I said.