Final Four Always Unpredictable

The NCAA Men’s Final Four is the culmination of the three best weeks of the sporting year, March Madness. For those of us that prefer to overindulge in college basketball year-round, spending three weeks watching games, listening to analysts such as Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps, and tracking our tournament bracket is nothing if not blissful. The only thing predictable about the NCAA Tournament is that it’s unpredictable. How may people outside of Philly had Villanova beating Georgetown in the 1985 national championship game, or what percentage of brackets displayed George Mason picking-off national powers, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Michigan State, on the way to its first-ever Final Four appearance? The upsets and the surprises are not simply reserved for the first four rounds of the tournament; in fact, the Final Four has a history of lower seeds beating higher seeds. For example, four seed Arizona beating one seed Kentucky in the ’97 National Championship or six seed Kansas, lead by Danny Manning, breaking the hearts of Sooner nation by defeating top-seeded Oklahoma in the ’88 national title game in Kansas City.

Danny Manning

The Final Four embodies the essence of what makes college athletics great. The passion from players is rivaled only by the enthusiasm from fans, all hoping to earn the right to refer to themselves as national champions. The NCAA Tournament and the Final Four draws the interest of even non-basketball fans, intrigued by the excitement swirling around the event and the tournament’s win-or-go-home format. Unbridled passion…boundless excitement…pageantry…tradition. Make plans now to attend the 2007 NCAA Men’s Final Four in Atlanta, March 31 – April 2. And visit StubHub for all your NCAA Final Four tickets.

 

Posted in General on October 17, 2006

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