Florida State, SMU make for a contrasting tale of college football hubris — and hope

This really has been a year in Triangle college athletics in which anything has proven possible. N.C. State won the ACC men’s basketball tournament, and then reached the Final Four (two Final Fours, actually, with the women also making it). Both State and North Carolina again made it to Omaha, and the College World Series.

And Mack Brown, on Saturday, finally beat Florida State.

What’s next? The Wolfpack and Tar Heels winning a conference championship in football? Any one of the Triangle schools winning it for the first time since 1989?

Well, let’s not start talking crazy here. One rare-to-impossible sporting feat at a time.

Including his years at Tulane and his first go-around at UNC in the 1980s and ‘90s, Brown entered Saturday with an 0-11 head coaching record against FSU. It was one of those quirky things amid a long and otherwise largely successful career — that no matter what, he just couldn’t ever beat the Seminoles. That his alma mater (Brown graduated from FSU in 1974) always got the better of him.

Until now, that is.

Not even the might of a supposed coaching curse could compete with the stench of the Seminoles’ season on Saturday in Tallahassee. Not even decades of bad mojo and bad luck, for Brown against Florida State, could endure against this FSU team. UNC on Saturday did what no Brown-coached team had ever done and, in the process, created a compelling trivia question:

Name the only school in college football history to try to sue its way out of its conference, under the guise that it’s just too good for it, only to finish 1-7 in conference games the very next football season after filing its lawsuit. Answer: Florida State. Way to go, Seminoles.

FSU’s debacle of a season continues to be one of the most unintentionally funny things to ever happen in college sports. The school that has argued, essentially, that the ACC is just holding it back will finish this season 1-7 in the conference, and near the bottom of the standings. The good news, for the Seminoles: the conference portion of their schedule is over. They can’t do any worse in league play, at least.

As has been the case since its season-opening defeat against Georgia Tech in Ireland, FSU again on Saturday reinforced a truth that has become more and more clear: it’s not always about money. It’s not always about resources. Less-monied schools have beaten the Seminoles pretty much every week this season, and proven a lot of their lawyers’ arguments to be absurd.

And if FSU’s performance hasn’t been enough to remind everyone that money isn’t always everything in college sports, there’s SMU. SMU was so desperate to join the ACC, remember, that its administration basically agreed to enter the league for free — and without a cut of the conference’s television revenue, for years.

Think about that: You have one school, in Florida State, that has been so money-hungry and greedy and spoiled that not even the ACC’s record-setting revenue has been enough to satiate a never-ending desire for more. You have one school, in FSU, that is trying to sue its way out because it says the ACC just isn’t good enough, or wealthy enough.

And you have another, in SMU, that wants to be a part of it so badly that it agreed not to take any ACC money for the first seven years of its membership. And which of those two schools, after Saturday, is now 5-0 in the league and has a real shot of playing for the ACC championship? It ain’t the Seminoles.

By now, making fun of FSU has entered beating-a-dead-horse territory — fitting, perhaps, given the Seminoles’ pregame tradition in football, with its mascot riding a horse. But what’s happened in the ACC this season should, again, prove that it’s not always about money, conference payout, television ratings or any of the other nonsense that has threatened to ruin college football (and college athletics, overall).

There’s been a real collective brain rot among the college football public in recent years concerning a lot of this stuff: That schools just have to chase the biggest slice of television revenue possible. That it’s all about TV ratings. That if you’re not in the Power Two (the Big Ten or SEC), you’re just doomed.

A lot of that is fear-mongering paranoia, mixed with greed. There’s a lot that goes into winning in football, as in any sport. Conference revenue is a significant part of that, yes — but only a part. And arguably far from the most important one.

FSU makes plenty of money, yet is 1-7 in the ACC. SMU is still living off its alleged poverty wages from the AAC, meanwhile, yet undefeated in league play. Yes, the Mustangs have the benefit of wealthy alums and boosters who’ve poured money into that program — which should probably make clear that it’s not TV money that’s the end-all, be-all, but perhaps fundraising.

The most entertaining scenario for the ACC this season was always that one of the three newcomers would somehow make its football championship game. How everything has actually transpired, though, is immensely satisfying. The school that has complained endlessly about not having enough has lost again and again to programs with less. And the school just happy to be here, who isn’t taking a dime of ACC money, just keeps winning.

ONE BIG THING

Don’t look now, but UNC and N.C. State are both in the midst of resuscitating seasons that had veered a good ways into the abyss. Too little too late? Maybe. Feasting upon less-than-good competition? Absolutely. But maybe things weren’t as bad as thought in Raleigh or Chapel Hill. State has found its quarterback of the future in CJ Bailey. And UNC has been dominant the past two weeks. Slowly, their season-ending meeting in Chapel Hill is becoming more compelling.

THREE TO LIKE

1. Mack gets it done in Tallahassee.

If UNC had lost to that FSU team on Saturday, it would’ve been a testament to curses and ghosts. Both would’ve had to have been considered real. But the hex is over. The streak is snapped. Mack Brown’s run of 11 consecutive losses against Florida State is no more. Yes, UNC could’ve used a victory against the Seminoles back during Brown’s first stint at UNC — say, in 1997. And no, beating the Seminoles these days doesn’t mean a whole lot. But still: a memorable moment for Brown, who has suddenly steadied a UNC season that was headed south.

2. Bailey blossoming.

Is CJ Bailey the next great N.C. State quarterback? Probably still early for such talk, but he’s making the case. The usual disclaimers apply about the awfulness of Stanford’s defense, but Bailey completed 18 of his 20 attempts for 234 yards and three touchdowns in State’s rout on Saturday. It’d be difficult to put up those kinds of numbers against air, in a defense-less practice situation. It’s becoming more and more difficult to remember that Bailey is only but a true freshman.

3. Some meaningful ball in November.

Look, what happened in September can’t be sugar coated. State looked awful, and out of its league, in blowout losses against Tennessee and Clemson. UNC surrendered 70 points in a defeat against James Madison. But some credit where it’s due: with their major goals already out the window, State and Carolina have gotten off the mat and fought, at least. Both fan bases have grown tired of eight wins, and rightfully so. But that would indeed be pretty good considering where they started.

THREE TO ... NOT LIKE AS MUCH

1. Second half blues for Blue Devils.

Well, it was fun while it lasted for Duke in South Florida on Saturday. The end of the Blue Devils’ 53-31 defeat at Miami could’ve made for one of those 1980s-style movie scenes, with a dazed Duke player saying something like, “Yep, that’s me — you’re probably wondering how we got here.” And then it would cut to Duke having a 28-17 third quarter lead, before everything fell apart. What happened, though, during Miami’s 36-3 game-ending run probably said more about the Hurricanes than it did about Duke.

2. Obsession with ratings and television ...

A good number of online-minded college football fans have become obsessed with TV money and ratings. It has become, to some, a sport within a sport, the endless fixation on these data points. And so, quick: what have been SMU’s ratings this season? ... What’s that? Ratings don’t help a team win? Huh. Imagine that. The Mustangs have more than proven their worth on the field, which should matter a lot more than their alleged worth on a screen.

3. ... But networks do matter, and the ACC deserves better.

All of the above said — there was no excuse for ESPN relegating the SMU-Pitt game Saturday night to the ACC Network. The ACC talks glowingly about its relationship with its “broadcast partner,” and this is the repayment — that ESPN can’t even be bothered to put a game between two top-20 ACC teams on one of its main channels? ESPN continues to do the ACC no real favors. And while ratings shouldn’t matter as much as they do, they do set narratives. Some of those are difficult to break when good teams never have much of a chance to build an audience, or be showcased.

CAROLINAS RANKING

1. South Carolina (a new No. 1, and a question: are the Gamecocks, fresh off their victory against Texas A&M, the most underrated team in the country? They just might be); 2. Clemson (just when you think the Tigers are back, they lose against Louisville); 3. Duke (still having a better season than anyone else in the Triangle, so far); 4 and 5. North Carolina and N.C. State (take your pick of order here — the main thing is that State and Carolina are again proving that they’re basically mirror images of each other in football); 6. Appalachian State (don’t look now, but the Mountaineers are on a winning streak); 7. Wake Forest (some bye week restoration for the Demon Deacons?); 8. Coastal Carolina; 9. Charlotte; 10. ECU.

FINAL THOUGHTS, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

▪ I think in a different era, N.C. State fans would have to love what the future looks like with CJ Bailey. In this one, though, the first thought becomes: How much NIL money is it going to take to keep him?

▪ I think chances are increasing that Mack Brown makes a decent case for one more year, if he wants it. Winning out is well within the realm and what do you do if you’re UNC’s administration and money people if the Tar Heels are 8-4 and on a five-game winning streak later this month?

▪ I think it’s still sporting malpractice that N.C. State and Duke have only played five times in the past 20 years. They meet again Saturday and play annually again in the now-divisionless ACC but, still. What a blunder that they went so long without playing all that often.