The College World Series comes down to a single game tonight between Stanford and Rice. This is the first time that the championship will be decided by a 3 game series and the first time that a team with 2 CWS losses (Stanford) has a chance at the title. Originally, the CWS was a double elimination tournament. The format was altered in the late 80’s to match an undefeated team against a team with one loss in a single championship game for network TV. And now that the championship is back on ESPN, the single championship game has been replaced by a 3 game series.

While I must confess my fondness of the original double elimination format, the 3 games series is a great improvement over the single championship game. So ESPN, welcome back to the College World Series.