Latest news with #rivalries
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New ACC men's basketball schedule trashes a century of NC basketball history
Let's be perfectly clear about this. There is no room for argument on this point. Rivalries made college sports. Then and now. Then: Army-Navy. The Ivy League. Michigan-Ohio State. Oklahoma-Texas. California-Stanford. Advertisement And now: UCLA-USC. Alabama-Auburn. Duke-UNC. The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Without those rivalries, especially in this era where players are getting paid millions and enjoying unrestricted free agency, college football and basketball will soon just be low-rent minor leagues with no emotional connection to their fans. Business, not personal. Which brings us to N.C. State-North Carolina, the original Triangle rivalry, long before North Carolina and Duke caught ESPN's fancy. North Carolina's Seth Trimble drives to the basket against N.C. State's Dontrez Styles and Ben Middlebrooks during the first half of the Tar Heels' game at Lenovo Center on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown/kmckeown@ Thanks to the ACC's innovative new men's basketball schedule format, the Wolfpack won't play in Chapel Hill this year for the first time since 1919, when Wake Forest was still in Wake Forest. Advertisement Nor will N.C. State go to Cameron Indoor Stadium, not as uncommon an occurrence these days, but still the site of one of the most unexpectedly dramatic games of the ACC schedule last winter. That one can deliver, too. It's certainly a game more worth playing than Clemson-Pittsburgh, the ACC-endorsed home-and-home grudge match that's ready to sweep the nation. The new format is the result of going from 20 conference games to 18, and the stated purpose of all of these changes is to maximize the ACC's chances of getting more teams into the NCAA tournament. It all seems like a lot of effort when the actual answer is simply a combination of 'get good' and 'stop losing to bad teams,' but even if this works, it will come at the expense of games people want to watch. When the idea was proposed, it seemed safe to assume this 'secondary partner' business would be a wink-wink way to preserve the handful of non-primary matchups that matter to fans and ESPN, like State-Carolina, while allowing would-be tournament teams to avoid resume-deflating games against teams figured to fill out the bottom of the standings. That, at least, would have made some sense. Duke's Cooper Flagg (2) drives to the basket against North Carolina forward Jae'Lyn Withers (24) in the second half on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C. Robert Willett/rwillett@ But now we're sacrificing the kind of games that made the ACC a conference other schools wanted to join in the service of some nebulous attempt to game a system that can only be gamed by winning games the ACC keeps losing. Tweaking the schedule isn't going to paper over a 2-14 performance in the ACC-SEC Challenge. Advertisement Is there really more value in N.C. State playing Virginia twice than sending the Wolfpack to Chapel Hill? Is there really more value in Duke playing Louisville twice? You can at least argue those. There's zero, absolutely zero, value in North Carolina playing Syracuse twice, there's no debate about that. That's a waste of everyone's time. In an era where 'bad for ratings' is no longer a joke, you'd think ACC schools would be more interested in playing games that people might want to watch. We're already dropping one matchup entirely — Duke won't play Jai Lucas' Miami at all, for example — just to make this secondary-partner thing work, so it would have been easy to drop others and protect historically important rivalries. Why can't one team have multiple secondary partners while others don't? If N.C. State isn't playing California already, what's the big deal if it doesn't play Florida State too? Of course, not everyone is lamenting these circumstances. You'll be shocked — shocked! — to learn Notre Dame's secondary partner is Stanford, the school the Irish managed to drag into the ACC to ensure it remained a power-conference football opponent, the one other ACC school aside from Boston College with which the Irish share some history. Whatever Notre Dame's record is in actual ACC competition, it remains undefeated politically. North Carolina's R.J. Davis (4) drives to the basket between Duke's Tyrese Proctor (5) and Kyle Filipowski (30) in the second half on Saturday, February 4, 2023 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C. Robert Willett/rwillett@ At least that's vaguely a rivalry, at least in football. We're walking away from more than a century of basketball history so Georgia Tech can play California twice. There was an easy solution: N.C. State and North Carolina are secondary partners, just as Boston College and Miami are — with legitimate roots in the old Big East — and just as Notre Dame and Stanford are. Advertisement Rivalries matter. The Triangle accounts for 10 of the ACC's last 14 Final Fours in part because the standard here is so high. Everyone knows the attention that surrounds Duke-UNC is a rising tide that lifts every boat, and State's games against those two are a lot closer to that than outsiders realize. The attachment to college sports is personal. My school. My team. My jersey. But rivalries are the glue that holds it together. Our affiliations mix and mingle, in the office, in the gym, even across the dinner table. It's not the love of Ohio State that leads an entire state to avoid using a single letter for a week; it's the enmity for (M)ichigan. North Carolina cannot exist as North Carolina, fully, without Duke or N.C. State, nor can Duke or N.C. State without Carolina. Duke's Tyrese Proctor and N.C. State's Jayden Taylor dive after a loose ball during the first half of the Wolfpack's game against Duke on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown/kmckeown@ College conferences once understood this. They were built on that concept, as groupings of like-minded, regionally collocated universities that wanted to play each other on a regular basis. Because those were the opponents that fans and alumni — and players and coaches — wanted to face! Advertisement Without that friction, without that commonality, especially in this era of transient, semi-professional players, college sports is buying a ticket to irrelevance. If N.C. State's not going to go to Chapel Hill as it has every year since World War I, what's the difference between the ACC and the Durham Bulls and Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs? The Bulls aren't asking you for donations on top of the ticket price, for one thing. This new schedule isn't going to help get more teams into the NCAA tournament if the ACC doesn't win more games in November and December. That's the original sin here. The schedule may help, in a best-case scenario, an edge case or two on Selection Sunday, but the stage is set long before ACC schools start playing each other. We're sacrificing State-Carolina and Duke-State for the 'greater good' of the ACC, but it actually hurts everyone. Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post. Luke DeCock's Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports
New York Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
SEC making alternative plans to keep key rivalries in an 8-game schedule
DESTIN, Fla. — The assumption has long been that several key rivalries — such as Auburn-Georgia, Alabama-Tennessee and Texas-Texas A&M — were doomed as annual games if the SEC stuck with an eight-game schedule. There may be another option, as it turns out. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday the conference could make an effort to preserve certain games if it sticks with an eight-game schedule. Advertisement 'We're attentive to real key rivalries and have models that can accommodate them that have been shared and will continue to be shared,' Sankey said. Sankey did not go into specifics and said the alternative format has existed. But that runs contrary to what conference officials and athletic directors have said over the past few years. There have been two formats under consideration: Major rivalries would be played every year, including Florida-Georgia, Oklahoma-Texas, Alabama-Auburn, and Ole Miss-Mississippi State. But so-called secondary rivalries would only be played twice every four years. For the first time, however, Sankey is leaving it open to incorporating certain games. 'We have a variety of alternatives, an alternative we presented is to protect those in an eight-game schedule moving forward,' Sankey said. 'The conversation about annual games that need to be played has been a focus since August of '21, when he had our first gathering of athletic directors and talked about what the schedule might look like.' The benefit of keeping those games is obvious: it keeps traditions going, and these are games that receive strong television ratings. The cost of it would be a slightly more complicated format, where some teams would only play each other twice every five years. 'That's an impact,' Sankey said. 'And that's one of the discussions the membership will have, has had.' Sankey's new stance could be read in a couple of ways: The most obvious is that Sankey, who favors a nine-game schedule, now believes his schools will vote for a permanent eight-game schedule and he wants to make sure those key games are played. The other possibility is that this is leverage for negotiations over the next College Football Playoff format. Many SEC athletic directors are pushing, along with the Big Ten, for the two conferences to each receive four automatic bids. That certainty would make SEC schools more comfortable going to nine games. Not getting the automatic bids would make them more likely to stick with eight games. Advertisement 'I personally, if we can get where we can on the Playoff, think nine games makes sense. But it doesn't make sense if we're not protected,' Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts said. Thus, the long-awaited nine-game schedule seems to depend on the next CFP format and whether the SEC is protected with automatic bids. The chances for that seem murky, so now Sankey, seeking to keep those key rivalries, is keeping his options open.
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Pete Wicks teases Sam Thompson about Soccer Aid 'rivalries' as he risks awkward on-pitch run in with ex Zara McDermott's new boyfriend Louis Tomlinson
Pete Wicks teased Sam Thompson about Soccer Aid 'rivalries' during a recent episode of their podcast, as the star is set to risk an awkward run-in with his ex-girlfriend Zara McDermott 's new boyfriend Louis Tomlinson. The One Direction singer, 33, and the Love Island star, 28, have been inseparable since their relationship was made public in March, three months after MailOnline revealed Zara and Sam, 32, had parted ways. Meanwhile, former Made In Chelsea star Sam has seemingly moved on with Love Island's Samie Elishi and the new couple were spotted passionately kissing outside Olivia Attwood 's birthday party this week. However, it hasn't stopped best pal Pete from teasing Sam about Soccer Aid, which will see both Sam and Louis both playing for England in the charity football match in June. In a clip posted to Staying Relevant's TikTok account on Thursday, Pete asked Sam: 'You're really going through it with the whole f****** body and dieting and training loads. Is that for Soccer Aid?' Sam laughed and assured he's 'loving it' but 'no, it's not' for the game, to which Pete continued: 'Are you sure it's not for Soccer Aid? How are you feeling? You're playing again. Must be really exciting.' In a clip posted to Staying Relevant's TikTok account on Thursday, Pete asked Sam: 'You're really going through it with the whole f****** body and dieting and training loads. Is that for Soccer Aid?' He added: 'How do you feel about the line up? Do you think you've got a strong team?' Awkwardly laughing, Sam replied: 'Got a really strong team'. But, not dropping the subject, Pete then asked: 'Any kind of people in there who you're looking forward to playing with?' 'Loads,' Sam laughed: 'Tom Grennan. I'm really looking forward to playing alongside Wayne Rooney, Tyson Fury's the manager. I can't wait'. Pete joked: 'I mean that's gonna be f****** amazing. Make sure you get him on side though because you may need him in your corner in case you fall out with anyone. Not that you will but just in case there's any rivalries or anything. 'You know, you have to train together and it's a lot, you know when you're kind of in close quarters with someone like that. All sorts gets brought up. Anyway...' Sam and Louis will join the likes of Tyson Fury, Jill Scott, Grennan and Paddy McGuinness in the star-studded squad, while Wayne Rooney will step out of retirement as one of the managers. It comes as Louis made his relationship with new girlfriend Zara Instagram official on Wednesday evening. The One Direction star sent fans wild as he shared a gushing comment on his new girlfriend's social media post. Zara shared a stunning picture of herself editing her new documentary series as she explained that she is feeling more 'confident' in front of the camera and gushed that she is 'unbelievably excited' for fans to watch. She penned: 'In the edit for my new series all about Thailand. I'm so unbelievably excited about this one. 'I can't believe I've been making documentaries for 5 years now… every year that goes by I feel my confidence in front of the camera, in my producing (and in myself!!) growing so much. 'I feel really proud of this, of our amazing team for creating such a special series with so much depth to it, exploring some pretty serious topics but also capturing the fun too. I learnt SO much making this programme. I cannot wait ❤️. '(Thailand will be out later this year after my stalking documentary which will be out this summer)'. Louis quickly took to the comments and wrote: 'Proud of you x'. While his younger sister Daisy looked to also approve his new relationship with the influencer as she also penned: 'Clever and beautiful'. In the first hour of Louis sharing the sweet comment, nearly six thousand fans liked the message and several others commented saying he was 'cute' and happy that he is 'supportive'. The post comes after Zara recently shared a gallery of photos from her Los Angeles trip and once again received support from Louis' sisters in the comments section. She showcased her toned figure in a tiny blue crop top, teamed with a matching mini skirt as she posed in the streets of LA. Zara, who has spent the past few weeks in the states with Louis, captioned the post: 'April you've been special.' While Louis wasn't pictured, his sister Lottie Tomlinson showed her support as she commented a heart emoji, while Phoebe added the blowing kisses emoji. Zara and Louis sparked relationship rooms at the start of this year before going public in March, three months after MailOnline revealed Zara and ex-boyfriend Sam had parted ways. Zara and Sam were together for five years before they split at the end of 2024 shortly after the Made In Chelsea favourite worked in Australia for I'm A Celeb spinoff show Unpacked.
