Duke-UNC rivalry has lost its juice. ESPN clings to the past by spotlighting it.

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Few things in the world matter less than which college campus ESPN chooses to broadcast its college basketball pregame show from.

Still, it was curious last weekend when the network announced that its final “College GameDay” of the regular season would visit Chapel Hill to hype up Duke vs. North Carolina for the second time in nine weeks.

Yes, the game is important to North Carolina, which probably won’t make the NCAA Tournament without a win. And yes, Duke is fighting for the No. 1 overall seed with a must-see player in Cooper Flagg, who will almost certainly be the top pick in June’s NBA draft.

But if you’re trying to tell the story of this college basketball season, it doesn’t make much sense.

This is admittedly a small nit to pick with the so-called Worldwide Leader. “College GameDay” does not have the cultural relevance in basketball that it does in football; it’s filler programming that frequently draws fewer than a million viewers. And leaning on the Duke-UNC rivalry is such an easy button for ESPN; it has hosted GameDay on the last weekend of the regular season for 12 of the last 13 seasons.

The problem, though, is that the entire competitive balance of college basketball has shifted dramatically over the last decade. Highlighting Duke-Carolina again and again and again – even when it’s not a particularly relevant game to the national picture – feels like a restaurant unironically serving Salisbury steak and Jell-O. It might be time to update the menu.

Without question, the biggest rivalry showdown Saturday will take place between Alabama and Auburn, two top-10 teams who played a delightfully watchable game last month that ended with Auburn scoring a huge 94-85 win. Either of those teams could win the national championship.

But there are other big games, too, between Final Four contenders: Kentucky at Missouri, Ole Miss at Florida, Houston at Baylor and St. John’s at Marquette (which isn’t a GameDay candidate because the Big East doesn’t have a contract…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/duke-unc-rivalry-lost-juice-110542324.html

Author : USA TODAY Sports

Publish date : 2025-03-08 11:05:00

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