The greatest college basketball game of all time wasn’t even played in the NCAA Tournament, but it certainly helped shape all that March Madness has become.

I thought about that a lot the past two weeks, watching the upsets, glued to the screen as four at-large teams reached the Elite Eight and fought for a spot in the Final Four.

I thought about how we got here, certainly compared to the ongoing football debate, and about the impact that N.C. State’s 103-100 overtime thriller over Maryland in the 1974 ACC Tournament final had on making the NCAA Tournament the best tournament in sports.

Back then, only 25 teams were in the NCAA Tournament and there was only one way to get there: Win your conference. For conferences like the ACC that had a season-ending tournament, the regular season rivalries were exciting but ultimately meaningless, little more than a 3-month warmup for a 3-day event that determined who went on and who went home.

As great as the ACC Tournament was, it came at a huge cost. Then 1974 happened.

Did you know: 6 of the past 9 NCAA champions received an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Maryland, ranked fifth in the country, lost that ACC Tournament final and its chance to play in the NCAA Tournament. N.C. State earned the automatic bid. The Pack went on to end UCLA’s 7-year dynasty in the Final Four and claim their first national title.

All while the fifth-best team in the country stayed home.

Who knows what would have happened had John Lucas had made both of his free throws with Maryland up one in overtime. Or if N.C. State hadn’t had such a huge advantage in free throw attempts — 26-8 — in a game played in North Carolina.

There are a thousand what ifs, but this much is certain: That ACC final led to NCAA Tournament expansion. And two years later, with the field at 32, Michigan, an at-large team, made it to the NCAA final, where it lost to Big Ten rival Indiana, the automatic qualifier.

In 1979, the tournament expanded again, to 40 teams. In 1980, it grew again, to 48, where it stayed until 1985, when it fielded 64 teams for the first time.

Villanova, an at-large No. 8 seed with 10 losses, staged one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, shocking No. 1 seed Georgetown in a thrilling NCAA final.

More was, indeed, better. Historically better.

College football slams the door on those dreams.

At some point, college football will figure it out. And when it expands to an 8-team Playoff with a guaranteed invite to the best mid-major, only then can it challenge, perhaps even replace, the NCAA Tournament’s status as the greatest postseason in sports.

Done in, again, will they ever learn?

Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Krzyzewski’s veteran-led Blue Devils had just won the 2010 national championship, his fourth at Duke, when he decided to dive head first into the one-and-done movement.

Kyrie Irving, his prize recruit on the 2010-11 team, represented the first significant wave of change. Krzyzewski had some pieces returning, but he decided to turn everything over to Irving. Irving got hurt early that year, his Duke career spanned all of 11 games and Duke limped back to Durham after losing in the Sweet 16.

If that failed attempt at a drastic culture change were a stop sign from the basketball Gods, Krzyzewski ignored it.

Instead of re-examining whether the one-and-done was the correct route for a coach who never leaned on freshmen, Coach K mashed the gas and doubled down.

Instead of battling nearby neighbor UNC, Krzyzewski chose a new target: John Calipari and Kentucky.

Being the head coach of Team USA gave Krzyzewski access to the greatest NBA players in the world, many of whom either skipped college or spent just one season there. No doubt he was swayed by the ease with which they dominated the game.

The timing was no coincidence.

He coached Team USA to gold in the 2008 Olympics. His relationship with LeBron, Kobe and Melo became an obvious recruiting tool, and he took full advantage.

Duke and Kentucky have assembled the No. 1 and No. 2 recruiting classes, swapping places occasionally, each of the past eight years.

Krzyzewski landed just one top 30 player in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the classes most responsible for winning the 2010 national title. He landed three of the top 15 players in the 2014 class alone.

While both programs have dominated recruiting this decade, NCAA Tournament success has been much harder to attain.

Relying on freshmen, they’ve each won one title. Twice, Duke failed to get out of the opening round. Once, Kentucky didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament.

Now they’re gone again, both done in by older, more experienced adversaries.

The next wave of replacements are on their way, more likely than not to repeat the cycle.

About that bracket advice …

On Selection Sunday, I wrote 10 rules to follow to avoid busting your bracket.

There were some misses — a No. 16 seed did, in fact, upset a No. 1 seed and Kansas is still playing — but plenty of hits, too.

  • Four No. 1 seeds will not make the Final Four. (Two did.)
  • A team with 30 wins coming in won’t win it. (Only Villanova has a chance.)
  • Do pick a No. 1 seed to win it all. (Villanova and Kansas have a chance.)
  • Do not pick Cinderella to win it all, but do pick Cinderella to get to Final Four. (Hello, Loyola-Chicago.)
  • Trust the Big Ten at your own peril. (Michigan is a surprise, but the early exits weren’t.)
  • Stay away from Kansas. (The Jayhawks were a popular pick to win it all. Aren’t they always? They avoided a typical early exit, but they also have won each of the past 3 games by 4 points and were 1.5 inches from losing in the Elite Eight.)
  • What shade of blue do you prefer? (Fourteen of the past 15 champs have worn blue. We’re guaranteed of at least one blue team playing in the final, and likely will get two, so there’s an excellent chance it’ll be 15 of 16 next Monday night.)

Closing the book on the SEC

The SEC will sit out the Final Four in San Antonio, but don’t mistake that for the league underachieving this year. Given the seeding and expectations, it did about what we expected.

Sure, Tennessee bowed out early, but losing to Loyola on a late bucket looks a lot better now that the Ramblers are in the Final Four. Florida lost to a Texas Tech team that reached the Elite Eight. Texas A&M knocked off the defending national champion.

Fact is, with six power leagues in college basketball, two are guaranteed of missing the Final Four every year.

The SEC has had a Final Four team five times in the past seven years.

Only the Big Ten (6) sent more in that span.