2008 Woodie Awards
The Sports Pile: The grass is always greener in someone else's end zone
Will Brinson
Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Sports
Every time I think of UNCG athletics, I can't help but think of the Saturday Night Live skit with Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri. This is only exacerbated by the fact that the Spartans don't sport a football team on the campus. (Please note that this isn't so much an indictment of the tough mascot nature of a Spartan so much as a byproduct of my juvenile humor. It would be a total and complete disaster if I ever attended South Carolina.) I started thinking about the lack of a football team on campus this week, and it occurred to me that UNCG students should consider themselves lucky there's no team to cheer for on the weekends. Seriously.
Look at the football teams that sit in, on, or around Tobacco road. They compromise a slew of bad puns and horrible jokes and frankly, if you're a fan of one of these teams, you're living a pretty miserable existence right now. Trust me; I joined that group a while back.
Right now, North Carolina's "powerhouse" football teams are Appalachian State University, Wake Forest, UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and Duke University. In. That. Order. Think about it: The most football relevant school right now is the two-time defending Football Championship Series champion (rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?) and they just lost to Wofford.
Because of their win over Michigan, App was a wonderful story for the first week of the season, but there are a few major issues surrounding the future of 'Neers football. First of all, the town of Boone simply can't sustain a Football Bowl Series team; it's a town of around 15,000 that lacks any of the infrastructures necessary for that sort of program. After beating Michigan there's literally zero chance that any sort of decent program will let them have a sniff of an early season contest in the future. Getting embarrassed like that in front of a home crowd isn't something any Division I athletic director wants to deal with any time soon.
Wake Forest was a wonderful story, too. On the ride to the Orange Bowl last year, they made their fans "BELIEVE!" while Riley Skinner, who has the second best arm in our family by the way, gave the Demon Deacons their shot at destiny. Not to mention they started building a dynasty in Winston Salem not unlike Notre Dame, USC, or Michigan. Then something went wrong. That something is commonly referred to as reality. Look, the Deacs had a great season; it was a miracle to witness, yada yada. In reality the ACC was down (and still is): Florida State was bad, N.C. State was worse, and only Tommy Bowden, squeezing the ever-living hell out of his team's collective neck down the stretch, kept Clemson from winning.
Look at the football teams that sit in, on, or around Tobacco road. They compromise a slew of bad puns and horrible jokes and frankly, if you're a fan of one of these teams, you're living a pretty miserable existence right now. Trust me; I joined that group a while back.
Right now, North Carolina's "powerhouse" football teams are Appalachian State University, Wake Forest, UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and Duke University. In. That. Order. Think about it: The most football relevant school right now is the two-time defending Football Championship Series champion (rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?) and they just lost to Wofford.
Because of their win over Michigan, App was a wonderful story for the first week of the season, but there are a few major issues surrounding the future of 'Neers football. First of all, the town of Boone simply can't sustain a Football Bowl Series team; it's a town of around 15,000 that lacks any of the infrastructures necessary for that sort of program. After beating Michigan there's literally zero chance that any sort of decent program will let them have a sniff of an early season contest in the future. Getting embarrassed like that in front of a home crowd isn't something any Division I athletic director wants to deal with any time soon.
Wake Forest was a wonderful story, too. On the ride to the Orange Bowl last year, they made their fans "BELIEVE!" while Riley Skinner, who has the second best arm in our family by the way, gave the Demon Deacons their shot at destiny. Not to mention they started building a dynasty in Winston Salem not unlike Notre Dame, USC, or Michigan. Then something went wrong. That something is commonly referred to as reality. Look, the Deacs had a great season; it was a miracle to witness, yada yada. In reality the ACC was down (and still is): Florida State was bad, N.C. State was worse, and only Tommy Bowden, squeezing the ever-living hell out of his team's collective neck down the stretch, kept Clemson from winning.
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