The NC State-UNC Basketball Rivalry
Is there a rivalry when one team dominates the other? Not really...
There’s a strong feeling, especially by North Carolina legislators and some members of the UNC Board of Governors, that if either North Carolina or NC State is invited to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference for another league the other has to tag along with the former to make it happen which could prevent both teams from leaving the ACC, ever.
Laymen’s terms: If the ACC is broken into 18 parts and each school heads for the Big Ten or the Southeastern Conference, whichever league wants North Carolina only gets the Tar Heels if the Wolfpack is also invited. Unless there’s a sweet deal for the other in another league.
Most reasoning is to retain a rivalry between these two sister intuitions of higher education and somewhat higher athletics.
Thousands of Wolfies are head over heels (not the Tar kind) to meet North Carolina on the battlefield of any sport at any time, especially football and baseball. Even to disappoint when the Wolfpack fails.
Except when it comes to men’s basketball—which is the second most important ACC sport with football the first—looking back at the beginning of time, or at the very least the start of the ACC, maybe those of us in the Red and White (and any other color the team mistakenly wears to try to gain an emotional advantage) should rethink the rivalry.
If State-Carolina basketball is a rivalry! Is it? I’ve always thought “rivalry” means being competitive not dominated. When it comes to men’s basketball, the Tar Heels have dominated the Wolfpack, especially looking back to 1954, even when NC State won seven of the “rivalry’s” first nine meeting.
Since then, with the exception of the Tommy Burleson-David Thompson four seasons—Tommy’s three seasons of varsity ball, 1971-72 through 1973-74, and David’s three varsity seasons, 1972-73 through 1974-75 when NC State was 9-4—North Carolina has schooled NC State.
The Wolfpack’s nine wins were in-a-row and bookended by two losses prior to and after the nine, NC State’s longest winning streak in men’s basketball versus North Carolina.
Speaking of those four years of Wolfpack dominance, this season is the 50th anniversary of the 1974 national title won by NC State. In 2015, I published a book about that season: 1973-74: Reliving the NC State Wolfpack’s Title Run. You can read the book in its entirety on a different website of the same name as the book, or you can purchase a paperback or hard cover at Lulu.com: Paperback or Hardcover. Interesting note about that team, not found in the book: Five times that season, the Wolfpack had games on consecutive nights, winning all 10 games:
Sugar Bowl tournament December 28-29 in New Orleans versus Villanova and Memphis State;
Big Four tournament January 4-5 in Greensboro versus North Carolina and Wake Forest;
Two regular season ACC games in Reynolds Coliseum, January 12 versus Clemson, and January 13 versus Maryland;
North-South Doubleheader February 8-9 in Charlotte versus Georgia Tech and Furman; and,
The ACC tournament March 8-9 in Greensboro versus Virginia and Maryland (the greatest ACC basketball game ever played).
JUST THINKING: Five of those opponents played in their second-day-in-a-row game, but they all lost. Duh!
If my cyphering is correct, the Tar Heels had a 13-game winning streak over the Wolfpack during the 2006-07 into the 2011-12 season. That’s just plain bad on NC State’s part. Since the 2005-06 season, the Wolfpack is just 6-33 against UNC and only 2-5 in the past four seasons.
During the Kevin Keatts coaching period, 2017-18 through current 2023-24, UNC has a 10-3 record against NC State. However, in his first season at State, Keatts coached the Wolfpack to wins over UNC, Duke and Wake Forest in his first attempt, something that had not happened since the 1918-19 season. Oh, wow! Hang a banner! Those three wins in 2017-18 excited the hopes of Wolfpack basketball fans, a false promise if nothing else.
Anyway, back to the possibility of either team bolting the ACC for the Big Ten or the SEC with the requirement to drag the other along with them. It’s a good possibility, the must dragging part, because of policy changes inside the UNC System by the UNC Board of Governors.
It’s all a little complicated to explain, so I’ll take the liberty of an explanation by Korie Dean, a writer for The News & Observer and who covers this subject. Here are a few paragraphs from her January 24 story: UNC System board takes step to give itself power over athletic conference realignment
The Board of Governors first considered a policy on conference realignment at a committee meeting in October. The policy considered at that meeting was similar to the one the committee passed Wednesday, but there are noticeable differences in the new version — namely, giving the board the power to vote on the plans submitted by university chancellors.
The previous version indicated the board could “provide a recommendation” to the universities, but did not outline a process for it to vote on the plans for realignment.
Committee chair Kellie Hunt Blue said Wednesday that the new version of the policy represented a “happy medium” for board members who may have wanted more or less say over potential moves. She also called on board members to not let their team allegiances impact decisions they make.
“I just want to emphasize the fact that we, as board members, need to remember this is all about financial implications and not whether you like one team or another,” she said.
System general counsel Andrew Tripp, answering a question from board member Woody White, said the “financial plans” submitted by chancellors would likely encompass matters “broader than simply costs.” The documents could be “as encompassing, related to the funding of the change, as the board might deem to exercise in its discretion,” he said.
While the Board of Governors could discuss potential conference moves and the financial plans in private, closed meetings, Tripp said, a vote by the board to approve or disapprove a move would likely happen in an open, public meeting.
So, it could be about the money. If UNC’s BOG decides it’s financially okay for the Tar Heels to move to another conference, NC State could claim financial disparity if not included with the Tar Heels. And, that may be a stopping point for both schools to move.
Or the BOG members could ignore the plea from Blue to make a financial-implications decision and make a strict college allegiance decision which probably would allow UNC to go wherever it wishes.
If the latter is the case, maybe it would be good for State and Carolina to be in different intercollegiate athletics conferences, especially for the Wolfpack when it comes to playing men’s basketball against UNC-Chapel Hill. There just doesn’t seem to be much of a rivalry there, at least competitive rivalry. Maybe it’s time for that to end. Or, NC State just needs to build a better basketball program.
But don’t end the football rivalry. Don’t stop that. Even if the two schools are in different conferences, they should play each other every year in football!
Note: For what it’s worth, since the beginning of the ACC, NC State has had nine men’s basketball coaches and 12 Chancellors (interim and not). During the same time, North Carolina has had six head basketball coaches and 14 Chancellors, interim and otherwise! For what it’s worth.