This entire conversation about rivalry games is a farce now, and anyone who thinks the NC State game this fall means what it used to is lying to themselves. The soul of a rivalry was built on decades of shared history, on knowing the other team’s players for four years, on grudges that festered and storylines that unfolded like a novle. What we have now is just a scheduled appointment between two collections of temporary employees, a hollow shell that the TV networks can still market to the rubes. I remember when we played the Wolfpack and you knew you were facing Philip Rivers for what felt like a decade, or when Torry Holt was on the other side and you held your breath every snap. That was a rivalry. You built a game plan around stopping a legend you’d studied for years. Now? Half their roster and half of ours will be different from last year. The quarterback we’re preparing for in spring ball might be in the portal by August, and the linebacker they’re counting on might be one NIL offer from Tallahassee away from bolting. There’s no continuity, no legacy, no weight.
They’ve killed it with the portal and this free agency nonsense. Look at what’s happening everywhere. Oklahoma State bringing in fifty transfers? Colorado with forty-three? That’s not building a program, that’s assembling a fantasy football team for one season. It’s an embarrassment to the sport. How can you hate a player who just got here last winter and will be gone next spring? The animosity, the respect, it was earned over time. Think about the old ACC, the real ACC. Maryland was a true blood feud, a border war that meant something every single year. They ripped that away from us for TV money and destroyed a piece of our identity. The Virginia Tech game used to define seasons, it was about more than football, it was commonwealth pride. Now the conference is so bloated and disconnected it feels like we’re playing a random national schedule. They’ve traded our heritage for a bigger paycheck and called it progress.
I hear the young kids talk about “building through the portal” like it’s some brilliant new strategy. It’s not building, it’s renting. George Welsh would have never stood for this transient nonsense. His teams were built on development, on finding a Shawn Moore or a Terry Kirby and watching them grow from freshmen into leaders who carried the flag against our rivals. You knew the names, you knew the stories. Now, the headline is about some former Miami kid and a tragic accident from years ago, and that’s the “news.” It’s all become so sordid and disconnected from what the game on the field should be about. The focus is on collectives and opt-outs and draft stock, not on the team across from you for sixty minutes.
So when we play NC State this year, sure, I’ll watch. I’ll hope we win. But let’s not pretend it carries the gravity of those Thursday night battles in Carter-Finley back in the early 2000s, when the conference title might be on the line and you knew ever...