Let me be clear. At this point, I do not know all the facts about the astounding spiral that NC State took over the course of the last two days. Having already secured its greatest finish ever, the baseball program seemed genuinely poised to compete for and potentially win a national championship.
NC State now heads home. The calendar has not yet reached July, but the joys and excitement from Ruston, Louisiana, and Fayetteville, Arkansas feel like years ago. It is a vague memory now.
Vanderbilt gets to rebound from a loss just a few days earlier to line up its pitching staff in the College World Series Final, something that seldom happens to a team that is defeated early in the CWS, but it could very well not be the Commodores' fault.
Maybe Vanderbilt cannot be blamed. NC State, which had 13 players who were suitable to play on Friday but then was relegated to a forfeiture of their place in Omaha less than 11 hours after they actually did suit up and play, may deserve some or all of the blame.
I do not know. You do not know. We do not know.
NC State was allowed to play Friday. NC State was disqualified Saturday. The disqualification occurred at around two in the morning. The news dump of all news dumps.
No one has answers. That would take dialog. We are not getting that.
Would NC State have been disqualified if they had won the game Friday? The Wolfpack actually had a legitimate chance to beat Vanderbilt and will rightly lament the runners left on base and the unearned runs allowed in a two-run loss. NCSU could have pulled it out. If they did, what happens then?
No one has said. They probably will not say. Hypotheticals are seldom addressed.
Since the pandemic started, the law degrees on social media have given way to medical degrees. Everyone's an expert.
I am not an expert. I have a political science degree with a journalism minor. I am working on a master’s in journalism. My education was not geared toward anything medical. I'm not too fond of science class. That is the way I like it. When it comes to the medical, vaccinations included, I defer to folks who are well-versed in the field and not no-names with Twitter handles.
What I do know now is that NC State did not properly do whatever it is that suffices with the NCAA.
The NCAA, which has been getting shellacked in court quite a bit recently, can roll on whims with the best of them. Is that happening now? No one has answers, but being allowed to play and then sent home in a span of less than half of a day does not exactly swim in a sea of consistency.
The “#Pack13” will probably live in immortality now. NC State fans will make sure they are not forgotten.
NC State's sports teams often take the Shakespearean route, so we will get a healthy dose of hearing about how NCSU is “jinxed,” which is ridiculous. The Wolfpack was either screwed over or shot itself in the foot, but it will all be hearsay, conjecture, and conspiracies until people with real answers step up.
Just give us the truth.
Someone is going to have to speak about this. College sports are subsidized partly by ticket purchases and donations. NC State knows this well, as the drumbeats for a new baseball stadium have been louder and more frequent in recent weeks. So why would folks donate to someone who does not give them the common courtesy of an explanation?
Fans want titles. Teams sent home don't win titles.
Remarkably, no one at the NCAA or NC State has even bothered to try to control the narrative at this point. There are already wild rumors on the internet, but the real information will trickle out eventually. It is coming. I may find out. Another journalist may find it. Sometime soon, it will all get out.
Someone will eventually have to accept responsibility. However, that does not mean they have to be blamed too. This is a world full of imperfection, especially if it relates to folks in their late teens or early 20s. Accountability demands respect.
This is bigger than Wolfpack Nation. The NCAA calls it the college version of a “World Series,” so there is a minimum of a whole country that wants to know what really happened.
Now give us the answers.
