If you are an NC State fan or have ever been around an NC State fan, you have heard of the phrase, ‘NC State Stuff.’ This is one of the most infuriating phrases ever.

I hate to break it to some of you, but NC State Stuff does not exist. People roll their eyes when it is said but it’s true. NC State Stuff is not real.

I am going to rub salt in the wounds for a minute to make a point:

On Jan. 25, the NC State men’s basketball team lost to Miami because of a questionable timeout call when a turnover was being forced.

The Pack women’s basketball team lost to Texas in the NCAA Tournament in the 2016-17 season with some questionable officiating.

The baseball team lost to Coastal Carolina in the 2016 Raleigh Regional amid a rain delay and the Chanticleers went on to win the College World Series.

The one that stings the most for a lot of Pack fans is when, in 2016, kicker Kyle Bambard missed a field goal against Clemson as regulation ended. The game went to overtime and NC State lost to the eventual 2017 national champions.

All of these misfortunes happened and to think that these mishaps haven’t happened to other schools is completely wrong and, to be blunt, selfish.

In January, NC State beat the Clemson Tigers in PNC Arena. Clemson almost made a comeback but lost because after a Wolfpack timeout, Gabe Devoe missed a free throw which would have tied the game. Would this be defined as ‘Clemson Stuff’ because Devoe missed the free throw?

If the same instance occurred at the dismay of the Pack, people would say “that was some NC State Stuff to come back like that and still lose.” Or if we had been the team to have a comeback and still lose on a missed free throw it would be “some NC State Stuff.”

There are other teams across the country who experience the same losses. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. Always. That will always be the case.

In 1983 NC State’s road to the national championship was littered with buzzer beaters and close calls. The Wolfpack won a men’s basketball national championship on arguably the luckiest buzzer beater of all time, and against No. 1 seed Houston, famously known as “Phi Slama Jama” that featured NBA Hall-of-Famers Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Is that considered to be ‘Houston Stuff’? To boast a 31-2 overall record and 26-game winning streak going into the National Championship and lose on an airball-turned-alley-oop buzzer beater? If you want to find out how someone felt heartbreak in more recent memory, talk to some UNC-Chapel Hill fans about the 2016 national championship and ask them if that was ‘UNC Stuff.’

Teams lose all the time in ridiculous ways. The reason sports are so great is because they are completely unpredictable and upsets happen even against the most formidable opponents (cue the reference to the No. 16 seed UMBC Retrievers dismantling No. 1 seed Virginia in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament).

Comebacks happen. Losses happen. To everyone, not just some teams and certainly not only to NC State.

NC State fans, and fans of any team, are more invested in their own team than they are in any other team across the country. By default, fans are more likely to pay attention to wins, losses and how the team played.

Believing that any other team in the country does not have the same experiences is wrong.

I would bet money the person who started the NC State Stuff phrase was not an NC State fan and if they were, they weren’t a “real” one. A true fan doesn’t knock down his favorite team or its players. A true fan is supportive through it all, win or lose, and doesn’t add fuel to the fire.

That doesn’t mean a fan cannot disagree with a decision being made, but posting disrespectful and negative things all over social media taints the fan base.

When NC State fans feed into the idea of NC State Stuff, they are doing the job of other fan bases that want NC State to fail and look bad. Spouting off about NC State Stuff does nothing but make the fan base look unsupportive.

In recent months, head coach Kevin Keatts has said he doesn’t believe in the NC State Stuff and our nonrevenue sports are proving it as well with multiple national championships and being competitive in the ACC and nationally.

Without a chance to win or the threat of a win, NC State Stuff doesn’t exist. Don’t kill the hope of winning and the “almost there” aspect. The time is coming.

The only way to help get rid of the idea of NC State Stuff is to quit saying it. Let the teams handle the rest.