In the Tarheel state, it’s one of our most favorite times (when we’re having a good year).
In this time of NILs and transfer portals a college team’s fortunes can vary tremendously from year to year, more so than before those two changes to college athletics. Players, coaches, universities, athletic conferences and of course the NCAA are all trying to figure it out. Will the so called “Blue Bloods” still dominate? Or will some lesser team get a shot? The answer isn’t entirely clear.
The rumors abound about BIG money coming in from some deep pocketed alumni. Again, how much truth to put into these rumors is just a guess. And now there’s a new player coming into the picture that may have an impact, the NAACP. Yep, the NAACP put out an advisory that warns Black athletes that they shouldn’t attend state universities in the state of Florida due to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attack on DEI.
That brings us back to March Madness, the annual event that puts the fan back into fanatics.
Carolina closes the regular season by beating our arch-rival for the second time. (We’ll not delve into “The Trip”.) Then in their first round of the conference tournament, they handily defeat a tall and athletically gifted Florida State team. But college athletics can be tricky because they involve mostly 20 something year-olds. Tonight we take on a team that we swept this year after they swept us last year. Never take a win for granted.
All of this to say, March gives us a chance to not be swept up in all the events surrounding TFG and the Presidential election. It helps, but the news surrounding TFG still intrudes upon my March Madness bliss.