The Big Ten finally won the Challenge last night, after ten previous failures, and I couldn't be happier. They won basically on the heels of a Wisconsin upset against Duke, who lost for the first time in Challenge.
People (well, its CEO, at least) used to say about General Motors, "As GM goes, so goes the nation." Perhaps people will say, "As Duke goes, so goes the ACC." If that's the case, fine. I'll take an ACC loss every time if it means Duke loses and UNC wins. (By the way, the Heels beat the Spartans three times in less than one year. They are also 5-0 against them in the NCAA Tourney. Can we play them every year?)
The Big Ten backers say that the Challenge is meaningless, that the conference should be judged by NCAA Tournament spots and yada yada yada. I disagree; it does show conference strength. Since the last Big Ten national championship (Michigan State, 2000), the ACC has won four titles, going 3-0 against the Big Ten in the championship game.
Such is the result of the real ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
2 comments:
While I'm not Duke fan by any means, I think it's important for them to have a strong club b/c makes it more fun to hate them (and it also makes for good competition). So, for that end alone, I was hoping they would beat Wisconsin.
I always root for UNC, but I think they're overrated right now.
Dook is always going to be good enough for me to revel in their loss (especially to an unranked team), no matter how many times a season a loss may occur. I wouldn't say a 5-1 record makes a weak team, and it's always fun to hate Dook. I'm really excited for Wisconsin.
I think Dook's #5 ranking was a little overboard, personally. UNC may have started the season with a little too much credit, but I don't think 11 or wherever we move to since MSU will be undeserved.
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