Considering current trends across the NCAA, it is becoming more likely that no men’s basketball or football national championship trophy will ever find its way to Raleigh, unless the Wolfpack decides to start truly fighting for once. That fight starts now.
By the time this article is published, it will have been 12,364 days since an unusually cold night in Albuquerque ended in a scruffy-haired coach clipping the net off of a basketball hoop to chants of “NC State! NC State!” The Cinderella story that preceded that moment is one that any of-age college basketball fan should be relatively familiar with. In the final six years of legendary head coach Jim Valvano’s career, and the nearly three decades that have followed, the Wolfpack has not managed to bring home another national championship.
This extended dry spell is not unique to the men’s basketball program; it includes the school’s championship-less football team as well. More than a century of play has only produced a handful of conference championships. The fact that may be the hardest to swallow, however, is that as each day goes by, the odds of NC State producing a championship team are shifting further out of favor.
The NCAA’s hierarchy is becoming set in stone. In recent years, teams like Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma have laid their claims to the New Year’s six bowls, while UConn, Kentucky, UNC and their respective rivals repeatedly dominate the men’s basketball tournament bracket. For the first time in the modern collegiate sports era, an elite set of universities are reigning above hundreds of others. Although conference affiliation remains fluid, this posse program’s strength is constant, and this trend towards an exclusive nobility in college sports isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
Just this year, college football saw its first rematch in a championship since the title game was introduced. Championship runner-up Alabama reported last Wednesday that it had acquired 20 recruits on the Top 300 list, more than any school has signed ever.
In basketball, ESPN’s top analysts opened this season debating whether Duke, Kansas or even UCLA will win it all — three teams that combine for 19 championship trophies to date. Perhaps worse, the basketball teams in this article recruited 25 three-star or higher ranked recruits prior to the 2016 season and 23 before this season.
Unfortunately, for the sake of true competition, this aristocracy of schools has combined its recruiting ability, conference recognition, national exposure and consecutive successful seasons to implement a “rich get richer economy” in the NCAA. The resulting problem isn’t that no other team has a chance for a ring, it’s that certain schools will always have a more significant one. The competitive gap between elite programs and outsiders will only grow larger as time goes by.
So what does all of this mean for NC State? As a member of the ACC, it actually means the Wolfpack is in a good starting position. The ACC is undoubtedly the premier basketball conference in the nation, and has come to rival the SEC in football as well. As of late, Wolfpack players are putting together quality games, and a few top recruits are donning the red and white.
Football’s near-victory against national champion Clemson and basketball’s historic defeat of Duke have demonstrated that potential exists in the City of Oaks. Curiously, what State’s teams lack is the most important factor in all of competitive sports: wins. Due to continuous seasons of below-average play, both of the school’s largest programs now find themselves on the outside looking in.
Last fall, football head coach Dave Doeren appeared in front of thousands of students at Packapalooza and concluded his short speech on the upcoming football season with “Let’s go get a national championship!” Yet, with only a 6-6 regular season and a minor bowl win this year, fans are left wondering if Doeren is committed to those words. This season’s men’s basketball team received similar preseason praise from sports analysts, only to take harsh losses to rivals and teams that had struggled in ACC play in recent years.
NC State fans are well aware of the tradition of mediocrity its programs have established, and theoretically, they’ll be just fine right here. Carter-Finley Stadium and PNC Arena are still pulling in crowds, and interest in the two teams isn’t fading. The school makes plenty of revenue, continually finishes seasons with reasonable records and everybody’s happy. The trophy case, however, remains vacant.
Ultimately, this issue has its root in a lack of ambition. What fans have seen year after year is that being in the middle of the pack (no pun intended) seems to be perfectly suitable for the two largest sports programs at NC State. The Wolfpack has all the right pieces to transform itself into a perennial championship contender, but it must commit to leaping ahead and putting them all together.
Yes, the Wolfpack will always have a shot at the big game, but we cannot place our bets on another 1983 season. If the Wolfpack ever intends to win another national championship, it must claw itself out of the losers’ bracket within the next few seasons, or be cast aside by history. Three and a half decades of waiting is long enough.
