MIchigan-Notre Dame finish what makes college game great

It was a slot machine that spun up three cherries three times in a row. It was lightning striking the same spot not twice, but three times - all in the span of 72 seconds. It was joy, heartbreak, joy, heartbreak, and for good measure, joy and heartbreak one more time - all in a span of timer shorter than your average infomercial.

It was Michigan 35, Notre Dame 31, a finish of epic proportions that would almost seem video game silly and Hollywood stupid if you pitched it as a Movie of the Week, with all the requisite bad fake football such cinematic encounters typically offer.

The great thing about it was that it was College Football at its emotional best. During the game, ESPN's Adam Shefter tweeted "I'd like to see the NFL come up with a finish like Notre Dame-Michigan." And I replied, "Not in a million years."

With three cross-country touchdown drives spanning the games final 1:12, a mass of 21 points flipped across the Michigan Stadium scoreboard and flipped what seemed a moderately comfortable Notre Dame victory suddenly into a Michigan upset. The epic and sudden shifts and turns roll at the very core of what makes college football so grand, and worthy of differentiation from its professional counterpart. Are Michigan and Notre Dame the stuff of championship caliber? Hardly. The Irish can't hold onto the ball inside the 10 yard line, and neither team sports much of a defense - that final span included close to 200 yards of offense, enough to make any defensive coordinator lose his lunch - but that was secondary to the emerging spectacle.

It was momentum's evil infidelity jumping sidelines like a malevolent gremlin, letting each team think it had won the game - only to jump across the field seconds later, and again still, until simply no more seconds remained. It was Michigan having overcome a 14-0 deficit early to lead 24-21 late; then, Notre Dame regaining the lead at 28-24 with but :30 to play; it was Michigan claiming the lead a final time at 35-31 only 28 game seconds later. For Michigan, truly the thrill of victory; for the Irish, truly, the agony of defeat.

Michigan fans stood 100,000 strong in Michigan Stadium for at least an hour after the game was over and the ESPN cameras had moved on, but even Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstriet were struck by the epic, magical finish they had seen. No, it was not the most well-played game technically, but who cares? It was a great game, a great finish, part of what makes college football such a fun obsession. It reflected too well the exuberance of the youth that play it, and the exhausting joys among those that watch it.

Long live college football!