Oddest National Title matchup in a long time...

First off, both of these teams are damn good. At the beginning of the year, people could peg them as teams to make a nice tourney run (unless you were deterred by Tech losing stars from last year).

I can’t think of a national title matchup in basketball or football that seemed as odd as this. It’s not that the teams aren’t worthy. Hell, UVa was top 5 all year. They just aren’t the household names for a championship game.

Butler-UConn in 2011 stands out, but both teams had made a title game before.

Maryland-Indiana in 2002 gave me this vibe also. Indiana was historically great, though.

This is the first time since ‘79 that two first timers are in the title game.