Do you want the good news first or the bad news? Well, I usually like getting the bad news first, so here it is. Our football team lost to East Carolina to top off its pitiful season with a streak of seven losses. The good news is we have a tradition in the making.

That tradition is disappointment. During the three and a half years I have been at N.C. State, I have felt little pride and a great deal of disappointment when watching our men’s football and basketball teams play. With the exception of the win against Connecticut in the 2005 NCAA tournament, our teams let us down, but how much blame can we place on the players? When people watch sports like football or basketball, it is very easy to yell at the players. Such comments as, “well, if the quarterback had made that pass”, or “our star player was having a bad day” give us an outlet to vent our frustrations. However, if we want to be honest, we should start saying “if our alumni weren’t so selfish”, or “if we could hire someone worthwhile to coach.”

Now, as much as I hate what I am about to say, it is true, and I must accept it as such. UNC has a much better sports program than NCSU. I’m really sorry, but the truth hurts. UNC needed a basketball coach, and “bam!” — first-choice Roy Williams on a platter. We needed a basketball coach, and we get turned down by all our top choices, so we settle for a former player. UNC needed a football coach, and “bam!” — first-choice Butch Davis, former NFL coach for the Cleveland Browns. We need a new football coach, but our athletics department is too tired to embark on that journey after all the so-called hard work it put into finding our basketball coach replacement.

Hey, I’m tired of writing papers and taking tests, but when I am assigned another one, I do it. Why? Because it is my job as a student.

It is also my job as a student to support my school and my teams even when we are down, but the embarrassment I felt at the UNC-NCSU game this year was too much. Standing in a sea of high-fiving Carolina fans as we failed to score even one touchdown was the low of my career at this school.

I, as well as many others out there, am sick of UNC always getting the better of us. Its athletic department gives the students a sense of unity and something worthwhile to follow. Ours gives us a sense of embarrassment and disapproval, and I hate to break it to all of our alumni, but you are also to blame.

It’s a double standard. Alumni can’t complain about the teams’ performances when they don’t contribute to that performance. They buy their season tickets and take all the seats away from the students who might give the teams some inspiration, but that’s it. What the teams really need are donations and a little encouragement.

UNC has a medical school and a law school with alumni who feed money back into the system because they want to support the school that supported them. Wake Forest has a medical school and a law school, and when its coaches don’t perform, it gets rid of them and brings in coaches like Skip Prosser who emphasize the importance of student support. NCSU has a veterinary school, but it is so far removed from the rest of campus it’s like it doesn’t exist.

I am tired of being disappointed in my school. Hillsborough Street is a joke, Brothers Pizza is gone, construction is a nightmare and our sports program is embarrassing.

We can no longer rely on our championship under Jim Valvano or our star quarterback, Philip Rivers, as our claims to fame. The truth is, we never took advantage of these successes. Rather than using a basketball championship to recruit better players and strengthen the program, we celebrated, and it fell apart. Rather than push Rivers to his full potential and win a championship, we celebrated the potential, and before we knew it, he was gone.

Maybe it’s not the fault of the players, the coaches, the administration or the alumni. Maybe it’s the misconception that NCSU’s academia is not on the same level as UNC and that is why players and coaches choose to go a different way. It is a real shame that all those people are missing out on the diamond in the rough that is an N.C. State education.

E-mail Meghan at [email protected].