Want to See State-Wake Play Tonight? You Better Go To The RBC

While I am perfectly aware of the state of NC State basketball, I have to admit that I am quite surprised that a Big Four hoops matchup is not being televised in North Carolina.  That’s right, no TV coverage for tonight’s Wake Forest – NC State game, unless you count sitting in front of your computer and watching the game on ACC Select as “television.”  I don’t, and I have an Internet connection and computer equipment as good as anyone out there.

Joe Ovies of 850 The Buzz put it best when he says:

“Lost in all the hype for tonight’s Duke-UNC game — NC State hosts Wake Forest. Apparently the contest is by invitation only, with no television for the 7pm tip-off. The only way to see this game is if you have tickets, or settling in front of your computer and use “ACC Select”. It’s easy to chalk this aberration up to the Wolfpack sucking and the Demon Deacons not really having any fans outside of Winston-Salem, but there is a larger issue at work. The ACC has allowed the overarching basketball history of the conference to be pigeon-holed.

“The importance of the Duke and North Carolina on a national level can not be denied, but let’s stop acting like it’s the only rivalry in the ACC. Why the conference doesn’t use the final weekend of conference play to promote the other intriguing rivalries is mind boggling. Never mind that NC State and Wake Forest have been playing since 1910, these teams are a huge part of the “Big Four” mystic and helped build the conference into a phenomenon. And it’s not like these teams don’t have history. Do I have to remind everyone about Julius Hodge and Chris Paul? Da Jules scoffs at bloody noses.”

I take this snub as yet another sign of how far NC State hoops has fallen and also how the ACC has essentially become a two-team league in hoops.  Someone actually went so far as to post a thread on Pack Pride suggesting that the ten teams in the ACC not named “Duke” or “UNC” consider leaving the ACC and leaving the fifty-five year old conference to the only two teams that matter to Conference Headquarters.  I have to admit that there are times when I feel the same way — it seems that there are two Chiefs and ten Indians in the ACC and little else.

Consider also the title of the HBO documentary: “The Battle For Tobacco Road” — a documentary that focuses exclusively on the Duke-UNC rivalry.  I’m not going to be ignorant and say that the Battle of the Blues is not a huge rivalry or that State and Wake are consistently on par with the two schools, but the fact is that Tobacco Road starts in Raleigh, travels through Durham and Chapel Hill and ends in Winston-Salem.  In other words, State and Wake Forest are as much citizens of Tobacco Road as Duke and UNC ever were, thank you very much.  Any look at a “battle” involving this mythical road simply must include State and Wake or it is bogus and inaccurate.

Still, it is what it is and the only thing that NC State can do is exactly what Wake Forest is doing: step up, get better and kick some Tar Heel and Blue Devil ass long enough that the national press has to admit that there are more than two teams in the twelve team ACC.

07-08 Basketball Headscratchers Media Sidney Lowe

96 Responses to Want to See State-Wake Play Tonight? You Better Go To The RBC

  1. choppack1 02/11/2009 at 12:17 PM #

    Quick question:

    Do we specifically know why THIS game is not on TV? I can’t remember the last time a Wake-State wasn’t televised.

    Is this something that the ACC controlled?

    Does every school just have 15 conference game televised and well, the dice just snake-eyed on this one?

    I’m trying to remember the last ACC game we’ve had that wasn’t televised at least regionally…

  2. wufpaxno1 02/11/2009 at 12:33 PM #

    I must admit that I love ACC basketball and that I watch the Pack play as often as I am able, but after suffering last Saturdays meltdown, watching this team play is painful as well a hazzardous to my health. So maybe this is a good thing.

  3. levelsixtyfour 02/11/2009 at 12:33 PM #

    Again, surprising that no one would capitalize on 2 Big Four Tobacco Road battles being played back to back by at least airing Wake-State regionally. What better segue to the Duke-Carolina game, and all the tradition involved? Not to mention that Wake is a top 10 team. Strange.

  4. LRM 02/11/2009 at 12:38 PM #

    Wait, someone other than Duke-Carolina play tonight? I think you might be mistaken.

  5. redfred2 02/11/2009 at 12:49 PM #

    It’s been decades since NC State BB has been really enjoyable to watch. We went from predictably boring and frustrating as hell to watch, to predictably terrible and frustrating as hell to watch. I can’t say that I blame anyone for not investing their hard earned dollars in televising an NC State BB game right now.

    Do you think that this is of any concern up in the of offices administration in Raleigh???

    I’d say, ABSOLUTELY NOT. They are oblivious.

  6. levelsixtyfour 02/11/2009 at 12:51 PM #

    I hope State-Wake ends up being a barn burner, revealing how unwise the decision to slight this game actually was, while as conflicted as it makes me feel, part of me hopes that Carolina absolutely destroys Dook, the game is not at any point remotely competitive and exposes all of this build-up and media attention as exagerated and unwarranted.

  7. Wolf Dog 02/11/2009 at 12:51 PM #

    Dadgum it! You think Swafford could do a better job than this. How hard would it be to sell this game off to local stations or Time Warner. Seems it would not be too hard. This is a game I can’t make, so I gave my tickets away to family and now I won’t even be able to tape it. Price you pay when we let a UNX man take over the conference. Where’s our AD? Shoudn’t he be working some sort of deal to get it on the tube? Lee “Lakeside Loser” Fowler! Quarter Million dollars a year to sit on his ass! Only thing he has done is hire a football coach and a basketball coach. The sad thing is they called him for the job! Who couldn’t do his job?

    Nice article in the Winston Salem paper the other day about one of our B-Ball players. We might be losing on the Court, but we winning in the classroom. Six B-Ball players got GPA’s over 3.0. One of the reasons Sid can recruit. Win or lose he can look a players parents in the eye! Good For him and his staff for making school a priority.

    Recruiting, running clean program, school prorities in order, these things come first in building a program…..winning and winning theright way is next.

  8. ncsumatman 02/11/2009 at 12:54 PM #

    The ACC has a habit of focusing on 2 teams only. Remember the FSU Miami Labor Day extravaganzas. Obviously, the decline of those 2 programs directly resulted in the lack of prestige for ACC football. Simply put, betting the house on 2 teams will backfire.

    In a similar sense, Duke and UNC’s national media love affair really has denigrated the league’s value as a whole. I think that is evidenced by the amount of bids to the NCAA tourney that the ACC has received the last couple of years.

  9. LRM 02/11/2009 at 12:56 PM #

    Nationally, Duke-Carolina is one of the three biggest rivalries in sports (Red Sox-Yankees and Ohio State-Michigan being the others) — that’s undeniable. Simply, people all over are fascinated by this game because it’s rare that it doesn’t have an impact on a national level. Hey, I watch it, if for no other reason than one of them has to lose, and that’s always good.

    However, in my many travels around the country, I’ve tried to explain that locally, in North Carolina, State-Carolina is a much bigger rival on a personal level, because we all grew up together, socialize together, go to church together. We’re friends, we’re family, and in some cases spouses.

    I only know a handful of Duke fans, and in my 30 years as a North Carolinian, I’ve never met a Duke graduate.

    I’m jealous, sure, of the attention this rivalry gets on a national level, but the fact is, it’s only a rivalry on the court, because Duke fans simply do not represent a large portion of everyday life in North Carolina.

    And yet this is something ESPN will never be able — or willing — to capture, because a rivalry on a personal level isn’t marketable.

  10. Zen Wolf 02/11/2009 at 1:03 PM #

    I am proud of our program! I think the boys will fight hard again tonight and I am sure that John Wall will commit at the end of the season. Go pack! Beat Wake! I Believe in you.

  11. Wulfpack 02/11/2009 at 1:08 PM #

    No television for Wake-State while Dicky V and ESPN2 covered Davidson-College of Charleston last Saturday night in the primetime slot. Go figure. I guess it is just the current state of affairs.

    Seriously though, this is idiotic. Not so much from our angle, though this is a rivalry game that many would tune into. But more so, Wake is having a great year and you’d think someone with any brains would be able to figure out that this game should be televised and not the bottom feeder bowl — GT and UVA.

  12. anti-smurf 02/11/2009 at 1:14 PM #

    it’s quite simple, having any other game televised when unc/duke play would take away from the attention this game gets. I’m surprised all the networks haven’t suspended programming for this time period, so absolutley no one misses the game. Why not make it a national holiday! (yes – being sarcastic).

    How slanted is ACC hoops to duke/unc? How about every game they play being on TV! I’m fine with not having our games against cupcakes televised. But Conference Games – they’ve all been televised the past few years, and a rivalry game? Come on! I mean they show FSU/UVA, but not State/Wake?

    Just goes to show, NC State is the b**tard stepchild of the ACC….

  13. LRM 02/11/2009 at 1:20 PM #

    How do you think Wake feels about this? They’re actually good.

  14. old13 02/11/2009 at 1:23 PM #

    Just another sign that Wolfpack athletics has become non persona to the world. Thanks Oblinger/BOT!

  15. LKNpackfan 02/11/2009 at 1:23 PM #

    I’m not sure how the TV schedule is sliced and diced, but I don’t think CBS has taken ANY wednesday night ACC games this season, I suppose Criminal Minds draws more eyeballs. The fallback affiliate is the CW, and it isn’t unclear why they’d pass.

  16. wufpup76 02/11/2009 at 1:27 PM #

    “In a similar sense, Duke and UNC’s national media love affair really has denigrated the league’s value as a whole. I think that is evidenced by the amount of bids to the NCAA tourney that the ACC has received the last couple of years.”

    ^Very true. I was about to type about the same senitment.

    That said, though, it’s up to the other 10 teams to rise above “mediocre at best”.

    To your point, consider that the ACC once again is rated as one of the top 2 conferences in all the land and beat the Big 10 … again … BUT, the ACC could wind up with only as many or FEWER teams selected than the Big 10 – not to mention that the SEC, an extremely weak and unworthy SEC, is on track to place almost as many teams in the field as the ACC according to some bracket watchers

    ^This is a travesty. It’s up to the teams, but some of it is also undeniably league reputation away from the BIG AND ONLY TWO.

    As you said, the league wants to milk all it can out of it’s “elites” by pumping them and pumping them no matter what the sport. The other teams meanwhile are left to their own devices for promoting themselves and trying to get more than just regional exposure.

    Cutting off the nose to spit the face – or whatever saying you want to use … I would think it would be obvious to promote ALL the league while celebrating the rivalries … And yeah, we get it – Duke-Unx is the only game EVAR worth watching … IT’S EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE NATIONAL TITLE.

  17. levelsixtyfour 02/11/2009 at 1:28 PM #

    “…Duke fans simply do not represent a large portion of everyday life in North Carolina.”

    Because most of them are cheesey New Jerseyites who were not accepted to Princeton.

  18. Gene 02/11/2009 at 1:32 PM #

    UNC/Duke has gotten the national exposure because of ESPN’s unflinching promotion of the two schools basketball programs, which I think is based on a trimuvurate of Dick Vitale’s man-crush on Coach K and Carolina’s program, and allowing Stuart Scott to give a “shout out” to Carolina now and then, along with bringing up Jay Bilas playing for Coach K, whenever he’s on the air.

    Usually having one of those three on the air will focus attention onto Duke and Carolina, at a disproportionate level and has made it a game of national interest.

    State-Carolina is a much bigger rival on a personal level

    When I was a kid, in the 1980’s, I remember State-Carolina being bigger on every level. It’s just when NCSU can win once in every 3-5 years, at best, there’s just not really a rivalry going on anymore.

    Sort of like the Red Sox biggest rival was the Yankees, but the Yankees didn’t really lose any sleep over the Red Sox, because the Red Sox could never beat them.

    I remember going to Boston and seeing cars with “Yankees Suck” bumper stickers, but New Yorkers never thought twice about the Red Sox, unless they were playing them.

    NCSU versus the rest of the Big Four has pretty much gotten to that level, we’re an after thought and have been since Les’ second or third year.

  19. WolftownVA81 02/11/2009 at 1:34 PM #

    Didn’t plan to watch anyway but it’s still insulting. I feel bad for those that wanted to.

  20. BJD95 02/11/2009 at 1:35 PM #

    I was looking forward to attending this game tonight, but instead I’ll be stuck at home with the radio, trying to pass a kidney stone.

  21. inhoc... 02/11/2009 at 1:38 PM #

    come on folks, there really isnt any reason to complain here. from a biz standpoint of the broadcasters, do you see the ratings for this being worth a flip?

    this would be like televising a mid season DOOK v. wake football game with duke at 0-4 and no bowl implications for either team…
    i hate to admit it but no one wants to watch this circus program….its a laughing stock of the state/NCAA hoops in general.

    maybe a blow like this might send a message to the powers that be….however i dont think they will care.

    this program has to deliver something that people want to see on TV before it gets anymore spotlight time…

  22. WolftownVA81 02/11/2009 at 1:40 PM #

    ^Let us know which caused you more pain – the game or the kidney stone.

  23. choppack1 02/11/2009 at 1:49 PM #

    Anyone w/ any answers as to why this game isn’t televised?

    If it’s “the free market” – I can deal w/ it. If, however, it’s an ACC thing and part of an agreement, I can’t.

  24. Wulfpack 02/11/2009 at 1:53 PM #

    Inhoc, while our program certainly needs improvement, I’d say it’s fair to say that a State-Wake game would draw a larger audience than Georgia Tech and UVA.

  25. LRM 02/11/2009 at 1:53 PM #

    LKNPackfan,

    Unlike the national broadcasts on weekends by CBS, they have nothing to do with the local telecasts on weeknights. Instead, that’s Raycom, whose local affiliate in the Triangle is WRAL, which just happens to be CBS. I’ve noticed it’s different throughout the region. The recent TV mega-contracts with ESPN provided that Raycom had first rights over ESPN for local broadcasts for regular season games and the ACC Tournament. So while ESPN advertizes this as a national telecast, it will be blacked out in the ACC Raycom markets (as will the ACCT).

    As blaspehmous as this might seem, I doubt there’s any super secret conspiracy here by the ACC. They don’t benefit from not broadcasting games in any way, even if it is the night of Duke-Carolina. It probably has more to do with the quirk of an unbalanced schedule in the new 12-team ACC.

    The ACC TV schedules — unlike the football TV schedules — are set before the season by the pecking order of the latest TV contract. For whatever reason, the State-Wake game was one of the few not picked up by anyone.

    I surmise that this game was the odd man out because ESPN now shows NBA on Wednesday nights so it doesn’t have as many slots, while FoxSports and ESPNU each chose another game, leaving State-Wake without a slot for tonight. With the Canes having a home game tomorrow night, the RBC was unavailable, so the other option was to have this game last night (the ACC does not play conference games on Mondays). But Raycom only shows one weeknight game each week, and ESPN is in the middle of “Rivalry Week,” showcasing Michigan-Michigan St, Florida-Kentucky, etc, so FoxSports and ESPNU probably just decided on other games instead.

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