The Tennessee Vols' 2024-25 basketball season was one of the best seasons in program history, despite the fact that Rick Barnes' squad came up short of its ultimate goal of reaching a Final Four. 

Tennessee won 30 games for just the third time in program history (the second time with Barnes leading the program). And Vols guard Chaz Lanier broke Chris Lofton's program record for the most made three-pointers in a single season. 

Additionally, guard Zakai Zeigler won SEC defensive player of the year honors for the second straight season. 

Throw in Jahmai Mashack's buzzer beating three-pointer to beat Alabama, a win against Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers in the SEC Tournament, plus the win against the Kentucky Wildcats in the Sweet 16, and it's easy to see how this will go down as one of the most memorable seasons in the history of Tennessee athletics. 

Despite all of those positives, there's a somewhat large group of UT fans on social media that seem to be focusing on what Tennessee didn't accomplish this season.

And that mentality is a growing problem across college sports. 

This "championship or bust" mentality is ruining college sports fandom. 

I mean, can you imagine being a Tennessee basketball player who just went through the grind of one of the toughest SEC seasons ever while providing some incredible moments for Vols fans just to hear those same fans complain that the team didn't get past the Elite Eight? 

How miserable do you have to be to have that mindset? 

The focus on what teams didn't accomplish is becoming more absurd by the year. We saw it with Tennessee baseball in 2022 when the team came up short of reaching Omaha after a marvelous and memorable regular season. We saw it with football in 2022 and 2024. And we've seen it with basketball two years in a row now after coming up a game short of the program's first Final Four appearance. 

Winning a championship in college spots is hard….really hard. It's something that deserves a major celebration when it does happen for a program. But when a team comes up short, focusing on the loss that ended the season is taking away from all of the great things that happened throughout the season. 

Being a sports fan has always been about enjoying the journey of rooting for your favorite team, not about whether or not they win a championship at the end of the season. Sometimes a team can do everything right and still come up short. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other team. And sometimes, the ball just bounces the wrong way. 

It's time to put the focus back on the journey of being a fan for a long season instead of the outcome of the final game of the season. 

Jameis Winston shows Jalin Hyatt some love with the way he described the former Tennessee WR during first media session with Giants

Some love for the former Vol