Could Duke And UNC Schedule A Third Annual Game?

Duke and UNC have set the standard for rivalries pretty much across the board. There is no equivalent in college basketball - sorry Bluegrass State - and not in college football. Maybe the Yankees vs. the Red Sox are close and perhaps the Lakers-Celtics. None of them have seen both teams sustain excellence over decades though. Duke-UNC, in the words of Jay Bilas, always delivers.

So ESPN is looking at the ACC and trying to figure out ways to get more revenue out of it. One suggestion: have Duke and UNC play an extra game every year.

The only concern we’d have is that it could dilute the rivalry. You need to have some time between games to let the tribalism build up. No doubt it would be fun though.

Perhaps a better idea is to have Duke and UNC host a pre-season or holiday tournament. We’ve talked about this before. It could be a long overdue revival of the Dixie Classic but with a more contemporary name. It wouldn’t be hard to get, say, Gonzaga, Creighton, Xavier and maybe Rutgers to visit North Carolina for an event like this. It’d get huge TV ratings and would also boost NC State and Wake Forest. For that matter, you could rotate other ACC teams in too.

Capitalizing on the Duke-UNC rivalry is a logical idea but it can be scaled up even more.