I understand the thought, but don’t agree with it. As a sports society, we have become so enamored of championships, that we tend to view anything short of that as a failure. Every year there are 6 champs — and over 300 non-champs. Championships are, in many ways, a crap shoot. Injuries, travel, weather, a lot of things can affect the ability to win a championship. I don’t think you meant it that way, but too many people have the “Ricky Bobby” mentality of “2nd place is just the first loser.” At the high school level at least, there is so much more to it than that.