This battle takes place in many states. Off the top of my head, I can think of Auburn-Alabama, Virginia Tech-Virginia, Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia Tech-Georgia, Texas-Texas A&M (unfortunately, evil won round one last night in Austin and it wasn’t even close).  My rule is ALWAYS pull for the land grant, even if I don’t know a thing about the team.

The reasons are many. One side fries turkeys, the other side eats turkey panini. One side thinks nothing of wearing cammo overalls on a cold game day, the other side is worried about spilling mulled cider on their cashmere topcoats. Aside from these slightly over-the-top generalizations, there are some long standing social differences at play.

Most of the time, schools that aren’t blessed enough to have “State” or “Tech” in their name are much older and more established than their counterparts. These schools were founded with the mission of educating students in the classical arts. The problem is that during these schools’ first centuries, only the rich or privileged could afford such an education. These schools had years to turn out a ruling class of businessmen, lawyers and politicians.

Contrast that with schools like my beloved NC State, which was founded in 1887 as the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanics Arts. The mission of such schools was to educate the rural class and provide them with the real life skills in an affordable fashion.

Certainly our society is more diverse now, and the old labels don’t quite fit the way they used to, but the fundamental differences in the culture versus agriculture war play themselves out on Thanksgiving weekend.

The bummer is that here in North Carolina, the proverbial “powers that be” have never let NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill join in the fun. Over the course of my life, Wolfpack and Tarhole games have been held in September, October and November. They’re all over the map. As great as last weekend’s 41-10 ass-kicking of the pansy blue was, how much better would it have been as the last game of the year, with a bowl game on the line? The thrill of these games is that the two rivals spend the season on a collision course and it all comes down to one shot to cap off the season.

I get that “back in the day”, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke was a better football rivalry. Duke is still the only ACC team to have played in the Rose Bowl and used to rule the roost, while State didn’t even make a serious financial commitment to football until the late 1940′s. But times change. Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill are much more rivals on the basketball court than the gridiron. (Of course, anyone who knows ACC history knows this is largely a result of the Coach K era, it was MUCH different before then…) Duke is always going to have a hard time competing in modern college football. The chance that their game with the Tarholes means much more than bragging rights for a few kids from Jersey is very little.

The Wolfpack-Tarholes battle needs to take its rightful place on Thanksgiving weekend with the rest of the culture versus argiculture battles. I need the chance to break out my NC State overalls!

Go Hokies! Go Tigers! Go Jackets! War Eagle!

The knee-jerk reaction to this is the easy part. It certainly takes a lot of chutzpah (see, my time in DC taught me a few words that aren’t typically used here in NC…) to beg for money from the taxpayers minutes after stepping off a private jet.

Of course, a strong case for the bailout can be made. The auto industry influences large sectors of our economy both directly and indirectly. There are thousands of smaller businesses who rely on Detroit and if the automakers go under, the  economic ripples will be felt across the country. By the same token, I don’t like the precedent that is being set either. I lean towards favoring the bailout only because I see it as the best of a bunch of terrible options.

What is not really being discussed is corporate excess. The CEOs of Ford and GM, who get compensation packages of $21 million and $19 million respectively, are no different from the top dogs at AIG who threw a lavish conference and also went bird hunting with some of their bailout money.

Folks, this is what you get from anything goes, totally unregulated free-market capitalism. Don’t get me wrong, an individual who runs a global company the size of a small country should make a lot of money. I’ve got no problem with that. But there is a cost to government looking the other way while corporate America does whatever the hell it wants, and now we’re paying that cost.

Consider this; In 1980, the average pay for an American CEO was 42 times that of the average American worker. What say we call him, oh I dunno… “Joe the Plumber?” By 2006, that number had skyrocketed to 364 times what Joe makes.  These numbers just apply to CEOs specifically. You could multiply them times a gazallion to account for senior management in corporate America.

Hmmm…what was the over-arching political mantra of the last 25 years? Oh right, DEREGULATION.

The fact is, income disparity in America increases for every little piece of financial regulation that gets dismantled. Why? The free-market values wealth and profit much more than labor. I am not bemoaning that fact particularly as the difference in the valuation of wealth vs. labor is inherent in the free market system. (Good Lord, how dry and convulted was that sentence?) The point I was trying to make is that the free market is built on cash. If I want to buy a new car, I can’t barter for it and offer my labor or a chicken. There’s no way around that fundamental advantage that wealth has over labor.

Yet, labor does have a value. It is the peanut butter to the chocolate of profit in our national peanut butter cup. You can’t have one without the other.  The equation should be much more closely balanced whether we are talking about the rewards of a bull market or the bearing the burdens of a bear market.

Why should Citigroup cut 52,000 jobs without bringing other executive perks in line first? I know that you can’t cut enough corporate perks and compensation to save all the jobs, but if some basic cuts save even 1000 jobs, why not look out for the little guys?

Most of my readers know that I work in the labor movement. I see this principle of looking out for the fat cats first, time and time again. Companies come to the negotiating table saying “we can’t afford the labor costs for X, Y and Z.” And then that same company offers perks like relocation packages, home purchases and stock options for executives.

I truly believe that corporate America can’t help itself. It’s in the DNA to line the pockets of the high and mighty first. And now we have a chance to change that.

If we’re going to save the banks, and the mortgage companies, and the auto industry, then lets put some conditions on these loans from the public coffers. In exchange for taxpayer money, the disparity between what the rank-and-file worker makes and what the CEO makes must be cut in half. Whatever new standards are needed to help a given industry be competitive must be mandated. This includes increased fuel effenciency standards and green technology for the automotive industry.

We are now seeing the cost of doing nothing, so it’s time to do something to level the playing field and ensure a bigger piece of the pie for everyone. And if that means that the CEOs have to fly with us commoners, so be it.

Regular readers of the SMD know that I am constantly finding parallels in my life’s two passions – NC State sports and Democratic politics. In truth, I probably look for these a little too often, buy hey – these are the two things I’m into, so cut me a break! When I think of the journey that we took this year, I see similarities with another journey not so long ago.

NC State’s 2002 football season was probably the most special one of my lifetime. The Pack got off to a 9-0 start, before finishing 11-3 with a rout of Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl. (Spare me the smack talk – I get it – a three loss season and non-BCS bowl ain’t all that – but for us Wolfpack fans used to mediocrity – it was something!)

Of the 14 games played that season, Mrs. SMD and I went to 11 of them. We lived in the Washington, DC area at the time and were aided by the fact that the Pack played at Navy, Maryland and Virginia that year – all essentially in our backyard. Throw in going to most of the home games, Chapel Hell and Clemson and the whole thing turned into a real grind. As much as we loved it, we grew very tired too. After a hard week at work, it’s tough to spend most of Friday night sitting in traffic on I-95.

Though the grind was tough, at the end of it we could look back with a sense of satisfaction that we had been with the team every step of the way. We were celebrating the Gator Bowl victory at a bar in Jacksonville and ran into one of State’s assistant coaches. As we told him about all the games we went to he said – “Think about how you feel right now. Isn’t this great feeling worth all the effort you put forth to support the team?”

The coach’s words came back to me when I thought of all that we experienced on the 2008 campaign trail. I was fortunate enough to be included in a meeting of North Carolina politicos with the manager of the Obama campaign, David Plouffe, back in February. As we planned strategy for the state’s primary, I knew that we were in for a political marathon. Primary night in May was very fun, as President-elect (damn, that’s great to type!   ) Obama wrapped up the nomination and gave the wolfie sign to a packed crowd in the mother church of ACC basketball, Reynolds Coliseum.

With that challenge in the rearview mirror it was time to turn our attention to the Democratic National Convention. Thanks to a lot of hard work in the primary, I was elected as a delegate to the Convention. Convention week was fun, but tough. As I attended my fifth convention, the biggest lesson I learned was that the passing of another four years had brought about another STEEP drop off in my ability to party. Let’s just say that 39 ain’t 29! But I will never forget standing on the floor of a stadium with 80,000 people all around me, cheering our next President and waving American flags.

The last 10 weeks of the campaign flew by – a whirlwind of rallies, writing, canvassing and politickin’. We were fortunate to be present in Asheville when our next President made a surprise visit to the NC Democratic Party fall fundraiser. The energy from that event provided the spark to keep going the last few weeks.

And then Tuesday, November the 4th finally arrived. We were up at 4:30 am, having only a few hours of sleep, and spent the next 15 hours working every last voter at the polls. A quick shower in our suite at the Democratic headquarters hotel, and it was time to watch the fruits of our labor roll in.

They called Pennsylvania and we got excited. They called Ohio and we knew victory was nigh. And then they called California and the alcohol and tears started flowing freely.

As our new President ushered in a new era of politics, winning a larger percentage of the popular vote than Ronald Reagan, I couldn’t help but think back to the football coach’s words on New Year’s Day 2003 -

“Think about how you feel right now. Isn’t this great feeling worth all the effort you put forth to support the team?” Indeed it is, and I shall never forget it as long as I live.

Senator Barack Obama’s speech on the evening of the New Hampshire primary:

I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire.

A few weeks ago, no one imagined that we’d have accomplished what we did here tonight. For most of this campaign, we were far behind, and we always knew our climb would be steep.

But in record numbers, you came out and spoke up for change. And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment – in this election – there is something happening in America.

There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport; in Lebanon and Concord come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be.

There is something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit – who have never before participated in politics – turn out in numbers we’ve never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different.

There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but the hopes they hold in common – that whether we are rich or poor; black or white; Latino or Asian; whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. That is what’s happening in America right now. Change is what’s happening in America.

You can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness – Democrats, Independents and Republicans who are tired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington; who know that we can disagree without being disagreeable; who understand that if we mobilize our voices to challenge the money and influence that’s stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there’s no problem we can’t solve – no destiny we cannot fulfill.

Our new American majority can end the outrage of unaffordable, unavailable health care in our time. We can bring doctors and patients; workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together; and we can tell the drug and insurance industry that while they’ll get a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair. Not this time. Not now.

Our new majority can end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of the working Americans who deserve it.

We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success. We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness. We can do this with our new majority.

We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists; citizens and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save our planet from a point of no return.

And when I am President, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home; we will finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan; we will care for our veterans; we will restore our moral standing in the world; and we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes, because it is not a tactic to win an election, it is a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the twenty-first century: terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease.

All of the candidates in this race share these goals. All have good ideas. And all are patriots who serve this country honorably.

But the reason our campaign has always been different is because it’s not just about what I will do as President, it’s also about what you, the people who love this country, can do to change it.

That’s why tonight belongs to you. It belongs to the organizers and the volunteers and the staff who believed in our improbable journey and rallied so many others to join.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.

And so tomorrow, as we take this campaign South and West; as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America’s story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea – Yes. We. Can.

The downside for me is that none of my passions ever seem to have a great fall at the same time. Take the fall of 2002 for example. Philip Rivers was in his junior year at State, leading the Pack to a 9-0 start and an eventual thumping of Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl. That season was so fun.

(Bonus trivia – Irish and 49er legend Joe Montana committed to an NC State basketball scholarship before changing his mind to play football beneath Touchdown Jesus.)

Unfortunately, my political party got absolutely waxed in the midterm elections, as voters chose candidates that could play into their 9/11 fears the best. (which is how a Republican with Vietnam deferments beat a Democratic incumbent and genuine war hero who lost three limbs in Vietnam for the Georgia Senate seat – he out “Bin-Ladened” his opponent).

Now fast-forward to 2008. Nothing is in the bag yet, but it looks like my party is poised for a historic realignment type of election. It’s been really fun to play offense this year and spend a lot of time on the campaign trail helping my friends. Guess what? The Wolfpack is pitiful this year.  Actually, let me retract that – State’s not pitiful – we just haven’t had players to field a team because of injuries. Hopefully taking some lumps this year will pay off next year. Throw in the fact that the Chargers are stinking it up this year despite Philip Rivers’ mostly solid play, and it makes for a LOOOOONG fall for the SMD.

But the point is – I’ve never got both my political and sports mojo working at the same time. Mojo is a funny thing, it rarely blesses you in all areas of your life. Give me a choice of where to point my mojo and I’ll always start with politics.

As much as I love my Wolfpack, I think that age is mellowing my rabidity just a teensy-tiny bit. Don’t get me wrong – Mrs. SMD and I still have to do a laundry load of reds every week. But I’m starting to get pleasure from other things.

For example, the weekend that State played Boston College, we decided to skip the home game and go to a political event in Asheville. The plan was to watch the game at a local sports bar in between bouts of politickin’. State played well, the game was fun to watch, but for the second half we chose to take part in a car promotion at the resort and sign out a little convertible for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The day was gorgeous, the leaves were starting to turn and best of all, we still had the game on the radio.

Fall may not bring my mojo in every area where I want it, but the more fall seasons that pass, the more content I am to take both the sports and the politics with a huge grain of salt.

Bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley has not only endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President, he has recorded a radio spot that is playing in Stanley’s native southwest Virginia. Here it is;

The ingenuity of the Obama campaign continues to amaze me. The audacity to take the campaign to places that stereotypically aren’t laden with Democratic votes is a sure sign of campaign strength. Now, I don’t know Dr. Stanley’s political history. For all I know, he may be a yellow-dog Democat with a Moveon.org sticker on his truck. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that the Obama campaign has the resources to communicate with rural voters on their terms.

Really, that’s all it takes – resources. Everyone has political values that largely reflect the culture in which they live. These perceptions are formed over time and are largely habitual. What happened in the past is that Democratic campaigns would write off much of the South and not even compete to change those perceptions and habits. Here comes the Obama campaign with nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in fundraising from more than three million individuals and suddenly the map is expanded.

Obviously, there are limits to this approach. The Obama campaign has a much stronger presence in Virginia, North Carolina and Missouri than they do Mississippi and Alabama. Even a force as great as the Union Army had to gradually work its way through the South!

Dr. Stanley serves as an important validator for Senator Obama. He knows that southern voters place a high priority on shared values. The text of the ad clearly lays out that there is nothing “foreign” about Senator Obama. By using overwhelming resources, the Obama campaign is challenging the fundamental political assumptions of southerners.

It’s about time.

Monday morning update – I received an email from the Obama campaign this morning touting the endorsement of NASCAR legend Junior Johnson. The racing pioneer is going to spend some of this last week campaigning for Obama in North Carolina. NASCAR, bluegrass, what’s next??

Judging by all the recent polling data, the presidential race in North Carolina is neck and neck. This is in a southern state, not even 50 years after the worst of segregation and Jim Crow. And while I have blogged about the fact that voter demographics in my home state are changing, that’s not the sole cause for the strength of the Obama campaign’s effort, another part of it is that southern attitudes on race are changing.

As I thought the reasons for this, I thought of the long journey that many native, and frankly older southerners have walked as they were once part of a society that embraced racism and a social order that kept one group below another solely on the basis of skin color. As I wrote about when Jesse Helms died, this was an inherited norm, rather than some diabolical desire.

And then my thoughts led me back to my parents. My Mom and Dad are both products of the rural south in the 1940s and 1950s.  If there is anyone who would have naturally inherited, by no fault of their own, racist views, it is the two of them. They certainly had siblings and parents (though not all) who had racist views to some degree or another. But for all of my time growing up in my comfortable middle class home, I never once heard my parents say anything racist.

In fact, I vividly remember my parents having African-American friends both at work and in their social lives. We bowled (yes, my family bowled, that’s another blog sometime…) with an African-American family, shared meals in each others’ homes and went to bingo parlors together. I have faint memories of my parents discussing the “looks” they would get from other white friends for hanging out with a minority family – but it never bothered my parents one bit, and they never backed down from any of those friendships.

My parents’ attitude naturally found its way into my values. I made best friends with an American Indian in second grade and consider him to be my brother to this day. Though it was natural that the majority of my friends were white, because there was still much social segregation, I can remember having many friends from many different ethnic groups.

There’s not anything particularly remarkable about that – many children who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s had similar experiences.  And my generation has certainly had our own biases and prejudices to work through and improve on. (For example, growing up, I would tell jokes about many ethnic groups. Though I grew out of that, I must be frank and admit that I still find humor in cultural differences where I probably shouldn’t.)

But I use my own life as an example to say this; My parents gave me both material things and values growing up. I wanted for nothing and am eternally grateful for my upbringing. But what they didn’t give me, was any hint of racism. They didn’t give me the idea that someone from another ethic group is worth less than I am. They didn’t inherit or pass on to me racism, despite the fact that it was the cultural norm when they grew up.

What they didn’t give me is probably one of their greatest gifts of all.

Certain things in life I like to savor
Watchin’ clouds and waitin’ on the rain
If you ever question my behavior
Just a taste will make you feel the same now

Don’t try to offer me anything
What it comes right down to baby
Don’t tempt me; I’m where I wanna be
Cause on the eighth day, God made sweet tea.

When Mrs. SMD and I were “a-courtin” we couldn’t get enough of the song, or the beverage.  After we got hitched and I took her back up to Washington, our quest for sweet tea in restaurants was never ending. Granted, the best sweet tea is homemade, but when you get home from work at 7:30pm, you don’t always want to wait the time it takes to make a batch. We were relegated to running coolers full of Bojangles tea up I-95 like a couple of bootleggers!

Now that we have returned to God’s Country, we were quite content with the availability of sweet tea in most every restaurant. And once again, a life-changing product has found its way into our home. Much like bacon salt forever changed the way I view asparagus, someone has improved upon something that I thought was already perfect.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you – Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka!

Full credit for the discovery must go to Mrs. SMD – she read about this online, figured out where it was and told me to go get it. As is usually (but of course, not always…    ) the case, following her instructions was the right course of action to benefit me personally.

She read that the product was available in some of the ABC stores in North Carolina, but given that the product is made in South Carolina, those guys have it everywhere.  As I was leaving a business trip in the lesser of the Carolinas last week, Mrs. SMD reminded me to stop and pick some up.

A short 24 hours later, we were taking our first pour in the parking lot at Carter-Finley Stadium. In a word, this stuff is HEAVEN. Put some ice in a plastic stadium cup. (’cause you don’t drink sweet tea and certainly not tea flavored booze from glass.) Fill three quarters of the way with the sweet tea vodka, and top off the last quarter with some lemonade. Then email me your thanks!!

Be careful though, this stuff is so smooth, you truly don’t realize its potency. There is a rumor that I *might* have had a second of trouble navigating a stadium step the other night because of the sweet tea vodka, but until the video shows up on Youtube, I shall deny, deny, deny.

Hey, it works for George W., right??  

]]> http://southernmaledemocrat.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/on-the-8th-day-god-made-sweet-tea/feed/ 6 southernmaledemocrat firefly http://southernmaledemocrat.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/touching-the-third-rail/ http://southernmaledemocrat.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/touching-the-third-rail/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:02:03 +0000 southernmaledemocrat http://southernmaledemocrat.wordpress.com/?p=212 Continue reading →]]> Every four years we see the same scenario play out all across America; We like to make small talk with our neighbors based on the news or current events, but when politics dominates the news, that task becomes much harder. Politics and religion are the proverbial third rail of polite discussion. We all endure the election year, tip-toeing around the edges of really talking about this stuff, just waiting for November 5th so we can go back to talking about topics like Clay Aiken confirming what 99 percent of people who care about such things already knew.

Religious views are a whole other ball of wax, but I’ve got a simple theory on why we get so bent out of shape talking politics – no one likes to be told they are wrong. We build up these passionate beliefs on both sides, but the problem is that those beliefs are often built on a foundation of half-truth and perception. And 99 percent of the time, any rebuttal of those beliefs are half-truths and perceptions themselves.

The fact is, most people don’t truly know politics and are just parroting what snippets they hear on talking head shows or get in email forwards. And this is true on BOTH sides of our country’s political divide.

But think about this; Have you ever heard two people who REALLY know not just politics, but government policy, discussing opposing points of view? If so, what you heard was pretty knowledgeable and reasoned debate without personal offense. When all the relevant points were made, they dropped it and moved on to talking about the weekend’s ballgames.

I’ve seen this in my own life. There are about a gazillion people who know more about politics and policy than I do, but given my line of work, I do have more knowledge than the average non-political voter. Yet I have many friends and professional acquaintances who are die-hard Republicans, many of whom are directly working against the goals I am trying to achieve this election cycle. Whenever we talk politics, it’s like talking “shop” in any number of professions. To be blunt – we know our shit and don’t have to out-parrot each other. And by knowing our issues – it means that we respect each others’ issues. I don’t have to get hot under the collar at my GOP operative friend because I know he’s not going to come at me with some crap like – “Obama is a Muslim-plant who will tax all home sales.”

Of course, the real struggle comes when the politicos try and talk politics with the non-politicos. For example, as I type this blog post, I am debating with an old friend who is not all that political. She is trying to trot out the “Clinton Refused to Arrest Bin Laden” chestnut. The bipartisan 9/11 commission disproved that, it never happened, but somehow (well, we know how, via the right-wing echo chamber) it’s been portrayed as fact for many years, playing on ill-conceived perceptions. I am sure that my counterparts on the Republican side have well-meaning Democratic friends who are just sure that John McCain wants us to stay in Iraq for 100 years.

In both cases, each of us has to play the asshole, and show our friends – no, you’re wrong.  And that’s where I suppose I can do better. I don’t “have to” show anyone anything. By just letting it go, I will avoid the conflict because even slammed with a mallet of facts, these people probably won’t change their mind.

But that’s the most frustrating part – by not engaging these people, we just keep cultivating a political system where perception matters more than reality.  It’s a pain in the ass, it leads to some personal conflict, but we have to keep touching the third rail and challenging our friends’ political beliefs. Ideally, one day we’ll all know this stuff cold and perception won’t matter any more.

I know, I know – the day that happens is the day Clay Aiken goes straight!

Let’s just state the obvious – schools in the Southeast Conference (SEC) show the rest of the country what big time college football is all about. And I don’t mind admitting that I am envious as hell! Last night I watched the 10th ranked Auburn Tigers take on the 6th ranked LSU Tigers and the atmosphere in Jordan-Hare Stadium was nothing short of electric. The new rankings that come out today will probably change this a little bit, but as of last night, the SEC had 5 teams in the Top 10. That’s just unheard of.

As proud as I am of the Wolfpack legacy that I am steeped in, I must admit that in hindsight, I sometimes wish I had attended one of these football factories in the SEC. I know, I know – choosing a school based on a football team is shallow and stupid. BUT – let’s be honest too – unless you have the grades to go Ivy, or your specific career path is chosen at age 18 – there’s not a great deal of difference in the quality of education provided by most major universities.  As much as I love NC State, there’s nothing I learned there that I would not have learned at LSU, Auburn or Tennessee.

(My very uneducated guess of where I might fit in the best always focuses on those three schools. ‘Bama and Georgia have a serious “Chapel Hell-our shit doesn’t stink” complex, Vandy and UK and both Mississippi schools are always left behind, Florida is a bunch of jerks, Arkansas is too far from home and USC is, well..USC, no thanks.)

It would have been fun to go to school in a region where college football truly matters and the devotion borders on religious fanaticism. The further South you go, the more the football matters. Yesterday’s NC State-East Carolina match up was fun and boisterous – but cramming just under 60,000 people into a stadium for a noon kickoff, with a tailgating limit of five hours before kickoff isn’t the same as cramming nearly 90,000 into a stadium with tailgating that started last Thursday.

It doesn’t take a neurosurgeon to figure out that the culture of college football has its roots in the agrarian-South. For years, the various SEC teams have literally been the only game in town in a region that had no professional franchises. The town of Auburn, Alabama can put 87,000 people in a stadium because they started doing it years ago – there was nothing else for the people around there to do!

I have made the point for many years that even if NC State were to somehow win back-to-back national chamionships in football, we’re still not going to put many more than 70,000 in a stadium. The pie in North Carolina is divided into too many pieces with UNC-CH, Duke, Wake Forest and ECU. (And now UNC-Charlotte is thinking about adding football….) Granted, those championships would be fun to see and be a part of, but the culture is never going to change to the point that we place the same signifigance on football that the SEC schools do.

The obvious flip-side of this argument is that our culture here in North Carolina is all about basketball. NC State coach Everett Case gave birth to big-time college in the South and we’ve been nuts about it ever since. (Note to any Tarholes thinking of challenging that assertion – do some research and tell us why UNC-CH hired Frank McGuire in the early 1950′s, then we’ll talk…) That’s not a bad counter-point. The ACC is all about hoops and the SEC is all about football, so the argument is sorta like apples and oranges.

Perhaps my beloved Wolfpack has been down for so long in basketball I am just starting to forget what the passion is like – but as I age, I really think I am starting to like football more than basketball.  No, my boys don’t exactly burn up the gridiron either, but in a larger sense, college football is much more of an event. Roughly three times more people can attend a football game than a basketball game, traveling from all over to make a whole day out of one game. Basketball is fun for those two hours – but then you’re done.

The good people of the SEC schools show us all how college football ought to be done. One of these days I am going to take a Saturday off from Carter-Finley and go spend a weekend hanging with the pros down South!