NCAA logoATLANTA – With Monday night’s NCAA national championship game between Louisville and Michigan still a few hours away, my friend the Syracuse fan wanted the tournament changed.
“Why does everybody else — the NBA, pro baseball, hockey — why do all those sports have best-out-of-something series to decide their titles and college basketball has one loss and you’re out?” she asked, still mourning the Orange’s semifinal loss to Michigan.
“It’s not fair.”
She might be right, of course. But as the Cardinals and Wolverines continued their tug-of-war through the early moments of Monday’s final half, both teams well aware that one-and-done can just as easily become won-and-done, it also remained clear that this is what separates it, what lifts it atop a pedestal each March, its national appeal undeniable, largely because the underdog need only beat a favored opponent once.
As Dan Fogleberg once sang about Kentucky Derby hopefuls: “It’s the chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of chance.”