This just in, when you make it to the Final Four you still have at least two games left in order to claim the championship. However, the sports world over the course of the last several decades has held the Final Four up on a pedestal, as if it’s the end of the road. CBS has titled the tournament “Road to the Final Four” for several years. Am I missing something? Don’t you want to take the road to the championship?
There are four teams left. Cool. The tournament is not yet done, but the schools are celebrating in the locker rooms like they just won the World Series. The only thing missing is the champagne. I understand it’s ‘tradition’ to consider the Final Four the coveted achievement in college basketball. Again, I understand that. I just don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense to me.
I’ve been a college basketball fan my entire life and I think I’ve asked this same question year after year – this time I’m actually writing about it. I’m sure if you asked the four teams still standing in the semi-finals if they were satisfied, that they would all say no. They still have potentially two games to get ready for in order to lift the trophy, so why does the media portray the Final Four as if the season is over? 
These are all primarily rhetorical questions, just me thinking out loud, unless someone can actually explain to me why hanging Final Four banners in your gym is looked at as being just as significant as hanging national title decorations. If you don’t win the tournament (in other words, if you lose a game) you shouldn’t get a banner. End of story.
Cheers to one of the craziest brackets I’ve ever seen.
Looking forward to the championship.
About Jeff Werkheiser
