Scheduling Thoughts
ACC Basketblog points to a Durham Herald Sun article arguing the UNC-N.C. State game should end the football season and backs it up with anecdotes of Wolfpack fans in agony after last year's defeat. I've witnessed three Heels-Pack season ending games in the past ten years, (1995, 1998, and 1999) and the dramatic season-ending contests Dascenzo's looking for a definitely there:
1995 was a Thanksgiving matchup in the rain on the yellow grass of Carter-Finley. UNC was playing for bowl eligibility, and the Wolfpack to, well, deny UNC bowl eligibility. From what I recall, a questionable call late in the game gave the Tar Heels the winning score, leading them to the questionable glory of the Carquest Bowl. State recieved four more years of Mike O'Cain.
1998 saw again the Wolfpack trying again to deny UNC a bowl berth, and jockeying for their own bid. I honestly have no memory of this game, which UNC won 37-34 in overtime, but I'm betting it involved a questionable call late in the game allowing UNC the tying score. The Heels were rewarded with Torbush's only bowl game in Las Vegas, and State, with losses to #2 and #3 conference foes Tech and Virginia ended up at the Micron PC Bowl.
1999 was the second matchup in Charlotte, where UNC was trying to deny the Wolfpack a bowl bid, and did so, stopping a State run on the one yard line as time expired. (I have a video clip of that on a computer somewhere. Perhaps I'll unearth it for the world to see.) And don't worry, I'm sure if you aska Raleigh alumnuis, there was a questionable call at some point. To be fair, this was only the season finale for the Tar Heels, as O'Cain would take his team a week later to East Carolina and blow his bowl eligibilty, along with his job, once and for all.
So there you go - three games in November, all nail-biters. You'd think iof you were arguing to enshrine this in the schedule yearly you'd mention the games, right? Herein lies the problem - the games just don't get remembered. On the State side, their part of the ignomies of the O'Cain era, banished from memory unless you're discussing Herb Sendek. On the Tar Heels side, the games just didn't matter. Two were gateways to mediocre bowl games, the third a salve to wounded pride, and of the three I remember one for the pouring rain and the other for a two inch .wmv file buried in a subdirectory somewhere.
Now, ask any UNC fan about 1989. And Spurrier. And the snapshot. Talk to anyone at Wallace Wade in 1994 - the last year of Duke football - where the two teams jockeyed for bowl position with a 41-40 final score in one of the greatest games I've ever attended. Ask any member on the 2-10 2003 squad which hurt more, the schellacking by the Wolfpack or losing the Victory Bell for the first time since The Team Photo.
The North Carolina - Duke game isn't always great. It's almost always meaningless, away from 15-501. It may never be good again - but Vany's improved, so there's hope yet for the Blue Devils. But it deserves the season-ending spot. Carolina-State in September will have to be relegated to the other meaningless games of September.
1995 was a Thanksgiving matchup in the rain on the yellow grass of Carter-Finley. UNC was playing for bowl eligibility, and the Wolfpack to, well, deny UNC bowl eligibility. From what I recall, a questionable call late in the game gave the Tar Heels the winning score, leading them to the questionable glory of the Carquest Bowl. State recieved four more years of Mike O'Cain.
1998 saw again the Wolfpack trying again to deny UNC a bowl berth, and jockeying for their own bid. I honestly have no memory of this game, which UNC won 37-34 in overtime, but I'm betting it involved a questionable call late in the game allowing UNC the tying score. The Heels were rewarded with Torbush's only bowl game in Las Vegas, and State, with losses to #2 and #3 conference foes Tech and Virginia ended up at the Micron PC Bowl.
1999 was the second matchup in Charlotte, where UNC was trying to deny the Wolfpack a bowl bid, and did so, stopping a State run on the one yard line as time expired. (I have a video clip of that on a computer somewhere. Perhaps I'll unearth it for the world to see.) And don't worry, I'm sure if you aska Raleigh alumnuis, there was a questionable call at some point. To be fair, this was only the season finale for the Tar Heels, as O'Cain would take his team a week later to East Carolina and blow his bowl eligibilty, along with his job, once and for all.
So there you go - three games in November, all nail-biters. You'd think iof you were arguing to enshrine this in the schedule yearly you'd mention the games, right? Herein lies the problem - the games just don't get remembered. On the State side, their part of the ignomies of the O'Cain era, banished from memory unless you're discussing Herb Sendek. On the Tar Heels side, the games just didn't matter. Two were gateways to mediocre bowl games, the third a salve to wounded pride, and of the three I remember one for the pouring rain and the other for a two inch .wmv file buried in a subdirectory somewhere.
Now, ask any UNC fan about 1989. And Spurrier. And the snapshot. Talk to anyone at Wallace Wade in 1994 - the last year of Duke football - where the two teams jockeyed for bowl position with a 41-40 final score in one of the greatest games I've ever attended. Ask any member on the 2-10 2003 squad which hurt more, the schellacking by the Wolfpack or losing the Victory Bell for the first time since The Team Photo.
The North Carolina - Duke game isn't always great. It's almost always meaningless, away from 15-501. It may never be good again - but Vany's improved, so there's hope yet for the Blue Devils. But it deserves the season-ending spot. Carolina-State in September will have to be relegated to the other meaningless games of September.
--T.H. Tuesday, September 20, 2005
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