Jeff Beaver, Exec Dir of The Charlotte Sports Commission, is officially floating the proposal for regular Fall meetings of the NoCar Tar Heels and SoCar Gamecocks at Charlotte’s BOA Stadium. THE IDEA IS A SLAM DUNK WINNER subject to a handful of VERY easily resolvable concerns. BobLee has championed this “no brainer” for several years and is now joining forces with Jeff and the “get it done” crowd in Charlotte. You will too when Swagger lays it out for you.
First, trash all that Paul Dietzel & The ACC mess from the early 70s (30+ years ago, DUH!) unless you are still wearing tie-dyed t-shirts and driving an AMC Gremlin. U of South Carolina and U of North Carolin are ideal natural rivals with just enough similarities and differences to guarantee hot blood and some bad blood – the recipe for any great rivalry.
BOA Stadium is a terrific “big time” venue with I-77 running north and south just a Connor Barth field goal from the front gate. IDEAL ingress and egress for both fan faithful.
Even in its early stages of discussion, the only discouraging words are coming from the myopic mindset of UNC’s athletic administrators … world renown for contemplating their navel while the rest of the world dances merrily into the new millennium. If Baddourian Lieutenant Larry Gallo, for heaven’s sakes, is the only obstacle keeping this “no brainer” from fruition, God helps us all if that amounts to any more than a hiccup in the process. In my best Allan Iverson “P R A C T I C E” voice … L A R R Y G A L L O!
Jeff, leapfrog that naysaying bureaucratic functionary and go directly to REAL decision-makers, you know who they are and WHERE they are (not in Chapel Hill). Check your Morehead Scholar Alumni directory and find the people who make things happen.
If Larry needs incentive to get with this program, some of the human hairballs on the message board asylums are also against it. Do you really want to be in bed with those loonies, Larry? Run Larry Run …
Jeff Beaver’s concept does not propose a carved in stone schedule at this point. The frequency and the “home game” questions are really the only issues. Beaver, the former Myers Park Mustang and UNC QB from the late 60s, need only consult B.L. Swagger to have all the dots connected.
THE KEY FACTORS:
(1) Play the game every OTHER year; and
(2) Consider it an AWAY GAME for BOTH schools.
“Every year” restricts both schools from inter-sectional games and makes the rivalry too mundane. Both schools have enough conference rivals they play annually. Every OTHER year gives ample breathing room for all concerned yet is often enough for “pay-back” to be a pre-game story line. This will not be a repeat of that State v UNC at Charlotte silliness. Adults will run this one.
Split BOA down the middle and give each school half the tickets, allocating maybe 10% in the far corners for Beaver to grease the local corporate skids. Do NOT pull that old bowl game flim flam of giving the schools the crappy seats, playing the “school loyalty” scam. Work out a half and half on game administrative costs and pick a warm fuzzy inter-state charity giving them the net profit from game concessions.
The game is a guaranteed scalper’s dream sell-out, and TV ratings grabber. Gamecock fans are as loyal, or more so, than any fan base in America. USC fans will quickly gobble up any unsold UNC tics. Of course, The Tire Bowl proved that UNC fans are more loyal than the worn-out stereotype would lead you to believe.
Former UNC FBer, and Bunting teammate, Eric Hyman is now the USC AD so the old Mike McGee roadblock is gone. Eric is already on record along with Visor Boy as wanting the match-up. It would be totally out of character for John Bunting to be anything less than “Bring’em on” UNLESS he is worried that he can’t compete with Spurrier and will lose recruiting points. Does that sound like the John Bunting anyone has ever heard?
Counting the game as a mutual AWAY game leaves both schools with their usual 6-7 home game moneymakers. So, does UNC go to Utah for a $150,000 guarantee and a traveling fan base of 500 … OR … net out in excess of $750,000 and bring 35,000 to BOA? Adjust your eyeshade and do the math, Larry.
12th game or not, this match-up in Charlotte should happen. “Big Time Football Schools” play such “border wars” at neutral sites … Georgia v Florida in Jax-ville … Texas v Oklahome in Dallas.
Out of conference scheduling is not rocket science boys and girls. Two attractive inter-sectional games, one against a better opponent, one against an equal opponent … plus one “darn well better win” against a cupcake at home … unless you are NC State of course; but last time I looked UNC wasn’t.
Prognosticating the future of UNC and USC Football … UNC will win 60-75% of its games under John Bunting or whoever replaces him if he can’t do it. That will be decided within the next 6 months. USC will be .500 this year with Visor Boy regardless of what players are left after the police are finished with their dragnet. Beyond this season, Spurrier will win 7-8 each year until he either gets pissed off himself or pisses off too many of the wrong CockABoose owners. Both programs over the next ten years will be “good” but not “great” meaning the games will be pretty even match-ups over a decade.
If UNC schedules 6-7 home games in the year they play NCSU and Duke away or Wake when they show up on “the new ACC rotation” plus this game against USC at Charlotte, that is 9-10 of the games that 90% of the loyal fan base can easily attend within a 3 hour drive. I would certainly plan on doing so and it’s a lock that Ol’ Vine Swamp Cauley and his Traveling Road Show will be right there too.
“But BobLee the schedules are “set in stone” for the next ten years.” Puhleeze. Ask Lee Fowler about State’s Temple game. If Larry Gallo throws up that weak excuse, he needs to be reassigned to Polk Place pooper scooper duties. Teams get out of future games all the time. The potential pay-off for one USC @ BOA covers any buy-out.
UNC v USC @ BOA
can happen as early as the 2006 season
IF the parties involved “want it to”.
If it comes down to some bureaucratic gerbil versus the likes of Johnny Harris, Ken Thompson and the UNC Fat Cat contingent in Mecklenburg County, my money is on the C-Blue Boys @ Trade & Tryon.
Circle the big wagons Jeff and let’s “gitter done”.
NOTE: In the first hour this column was up, we heard from reps of both schools claiming “we’ve ALWAYS wanted it, it but their people opposed it” Yawn … bwahahaha!
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Swagger’s Stumper
What character was known as “the Ghost who walks”
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Shavlick Randolph going pro, YIKES! … nice kid, but “dem big nastys” would beat him like a rented skinny white kid with Olive Oyl arms. Even Shawn Bradley is licking his lips over this possibility. What’s next … Prince Tassel Loafer running for Governor? Only In America …
