What is the difference?

People have always used the greatness of Carolina and Duke as a reason why we will never be great at basketball. Why isn't it the reason we will be great? Why doesn't their greatness elevate us?

When you look at the SEC West. Sustained greatness from LSU, Alabama and Auburn seems to have elevated the rest of the teams in the division to greatness. "Why would anyone want to go to a school in the SEC West with no football history and play in the shadows of great programs?" they said, but now the entire division is damn good if not great DESPITE having to play five great programs every season.

In college football, it would seem having strong neighbors would be more detrimental to sucess considering a few losses in a season prevents you from competing for a conference championship or national championship.

In college basketball, playing strong neighbors only boosts your exposure and makes you more likely to compete for a championship because you are "battle tested" come march and everyone qualifies to compete for championships, regardless of how many games you lose.

Whats the difference? Seeing Ole Miss, Miss State, Texas A&M (who is near dominant programs in texas AND competing in this divsion.) all rise has made me wonder why it can't happen for us.

10/11/2014 3:47:22 PM

I know right?

10/11/2014 4:30:45 PM

Historically, we've done just that.

Historically, MSU and Ole Miss are garbage.

We just happen to be at a point where the SEC West is like NC in the 80s and NC is like the SEC West 10 years ago, when Bama had Mike Shula and the SEC East was the hotness.

10/11/2014 4:42:09 PM

A couple of blue chip players in basketball make a much bigger difference in a couple of blue chip players in football. So for as long as UNC did not make their basketball players go to class, free rental cars etc and Duke was allowing players to get $80,000 loans for jewelry they were able to get the blue chip players that we were after. Hence why we have gotten out recruited for the past 20 years.

10/11/2014 5:09:23 PM

alabama has continued to out recruit everyone. I'm not wondering why we aren't better than duke and unc. I'm wondering why we can't become good like them. If they are perennial top 10 why can't we at least be perennial top 20?

10/11/2014 5:20:47 PM

Historically, we've done just that.

Historically, MSU and Ole Miss are garbage.

We just happen to be at a point where the SEC West is like NC in the 80s and NC is like the SEC West 10 years ago, when Bama had Mike Shula and the SEC East was the hotness.

10/11/2014 5:30:50 PM

At what point does "historically" fade out. Its been 30 years.

10/11/2014 5:33:48 PM

And the MS schools have been good 1 year and TAMU for about 3. Your point?

10/11/2014 5:37:30 PM

this post is about the modern social media, digital cable era. It isn't really valid for 1980s when exposure didn't work the same way.

[Edited on October 11, 2014 at 5:42 PM. Reason : op was posted in 2014. ]

10/11/2014 5:42:38 PM

Well then we obviously need to rethink our Instagram strategies if we want to beat Duke for the ACC Title.

10/11/2014 5:47:03 PM