Zack Jenio
“Hey can I copy your homework? Yeah, just change it a little so no one notices.” A new meme has swept across campus, including the Instagram accounts like @barstoolpack and @ncsu_memes, over the past week since UNC-Chapel Hill announced that it too would “light the Bell Tower blue” after each football win. Almost all of NC State’s campus, including first-years, were able to immediately catch the familiarity of this “tradition.”
UNC-CH pretty blatantly copied NC State’s well-known tradition of lighting our Bell Tower red after sports victories or other various occasions and achievements, and just in time before football season starts. Despite my frustration with UNC-CH for so blatantly copying us, along with a large majority of other students, I can firmly say that the rivalry between NC State and UNC-CH is incredibly influential in establishing a greater feeling of community through sports.
UNC-CH’s behavior is comparable to an annoying sibling when it comes to our rivalry. Not only do they deny having any type of rivalry with us, but now they also taint one of our most exciting traditions, a tradition which began in 1998 under Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. The NC State-Chapel Hill rivalry was seen heavily in the 70s, before Coach K took the Duke team to new heights. After that, NC State had less of a splash in the basketball season while UNC-CH and Duke formed a newer rivalry.
Despite the UNC-CH chant “not our rival,” it is extremely apparent that we have and always will be their rivals, especially during football season where both teams are of comparable skill. With this rivalry comes obvious negatives such as possible violence, like near the end of last year’s Thanksgiving weekend football game. This aligns with Harvard Assistant Professor of Psychology Mina Cikara’s idea that “rivalry is fundamentally related to competition, but it’s competition over time” which she says allows for “attitudes and emotions to become more polarized and entrenched.”
However, this violence is quite infrequent, and only seems to flare up at occasional flash-points. On the other hand, a New York University study found rivalries motivated and encouraged extra effort, striving for improvement. Specifically with athletics, when we pit someone against their rival, their performance will drastically improve. But the influence of rivalries on community is relatively under-researched in the academic community.
It’s quite evident at NC State, however, that the idea of having a rival based on the university you attend has a positive effect on the sense of community within the school. The idea of uniting together over a common enemy shines through in this context as school spirit can help student engagement as well as student achievement. Not to mention, the rowdy nature of rivalries helps elevate the game-day atmosphere during the big games which is always an exciting environment to be a part of.
Although our rivalry with UNC-CH can feel one-sided, the common enemy that we all share helps unite and connect us to both the university and each other. With football season starting this weekend with our home game against East Carolina University, it’s important that we recognize the benefits of our campus’s common enemy. On the bright side, with UNC-CH’s track record in football, we shouldn’t really see their Bell Tower light up at all this year.