The NCAA Tournament is the most magical event in college sports for a reason. It’s inclusiveness combined with a do-or-die format offers hope, to varying degrees, to fan bases of all sorts of colleges, from small to big, public to private and mid-major to blue blood.
And not participating in it stings.
NC State received that feeling Sunday evening when it learned it was not going to the Big Dance. Wolfpack Nation can claim foul or bemoan its exclusion — but a fair examination of its team sheet read classic bubble beforehand.