My wife and I were watching the college baseball World Series, and she asked me why it was a double-elimination tournament. I had no idea, so I searched for the answer. There are hundreds of stories about how double-elimination tournaments work, but no explanations for why. I can think of numerous examples in the baseball world, and I played in a 3-on-3 basketball tourney organized that way, but I can’t think of examples in football. So why is the College World Series organized this way? And why aren’t most of the playoffs in sports? There must be some explanation…