The strange juxtaposition of the three local games that were nationally televised in succession Saturday did not do Triangle football any favors. At the end of the day, as they say, we continue to be the center of the college basketball world.

Undefeated N.C. State led top-ranked Florida State 24-7 in the first quarter and had three other 10-point leads before succumbing to the fast-closing Seminoles 56-41. In losing their first game after four cupcakes, the Wolfies proved to be very improved over last season’s 2-9 debacle. And second-year coach Dave Doeren does have talent to rival the other two neighborhood rivals.

That game on ABC-Channel 5 had barely ended when Carolina at Clemson kicked off on ESPNU (if you could find it buried in the TWC channel guide). After one Tar Heel three-and-out and two Clemson snaps, the Tigers led 7-0 on the first of many blown Carolina coverages and the first of six touchdown passes by true freshman quarterback Deshaun Watson.

The 50-35 loss was more or less expected, considering the Tar Heels’ pathetic pass defense, but the Duke-Miami game that began at 7:30 on ESPN2 was a surprise in the Blue Devils’ offensive ineptness that looked like their teams of the last 20 years rather than the last two. Duke had a dismal third/fourth down efficiency of 2 for 16 and quarterback Anthony Boone completed 22 of 51 passes that will have him in the whirlpool for a week after the 22-10 loss to the pretty average Hurricanes.

Where ACC expansion and the divisions have settled even had the ESPN crew on the Duke-Miami game lobbying for realignment. They said what we’ve been saying for the last 10 years: that Florida State and Clemson (neither of which is near the Atlantic Ocean) shouldn’t be together in the Atlantic Division that now also has Louisville. The Atlantic has won 5 of 9 ACC championship games, and the four won by the Coastal Division were won by Georgia Tech (2) and Virginia Tech (2).

The reference was made, I am guessing, because the two Coastal preseason favorites (Miami and Duke) were playing one lousy football game, and no one in the broadcast booth could envision either having a chance against Florida State or Clemson (remember, Duke lost to the Seminoles 45-7 last December in Charlotte).

FSU and Clemson have an implied SEC brand in football, and virtually no brand in basketball, which sets them apart from the rest of the ACC. It’s like they reside here but really belong there. So schools with their own brands in basketball have to do something pretty extraordinary on the football field to even get noticed or mentioned in the same breath with our SEC-in-laws.

Thus, when Carolina has no one within 10 yards of Germone Hopper on Clemson’s second play of the game and Watson’s first college touchdown pass could have been thrown by any one of us, it underscores that, yep, UNC is a basketball school. And when Watson did it again to Hopper (this time for 50 yards) on the first series of the second quarter, all the good things the Tar Heels did for the rest of the game – and there were plenty of them – didn’t get nearly the credit they deserved.

The Heels, in fact, outscored Clemson 35-30 after falling behind 20-zip. That certainly shows more effort, if not execution, than last week in Greenville. But 15 penalties for 130 yards, almost twice what they had against East Carolina, still comes across as more than youthful exuberance. True or not, that lack of discipline falls right back on the coaching staff.

“Atrocious . . . ridiculous,” Larry Fedora called it before once again vowing to fix it in practice this week.

Despite giving up 120 points in the last two games and an average of 44 this season, all is not lost. The 2-2 Tar Heels may be playing their most important game of 2014 Saturday at home against Virginia Tech, also 2-2, and they won’t be facing another quarterback as good as ECU’s Shane Carden and Clemson’s Watson for the rest of the season. Not even Notre Dame’s Everett Golson can put up the kind of numbers the last two opposing slingers have.

There is talent on defense, perhaps not as much as on Fedora’s first two teams in Chapel Hill, but sooner or later the  d-backs are going to stop looking for the run and letting receivers fly past them into wide open spaces. The offense, which is averaging 41 points a game, is actually getting better behind Marquise Williams (four TD passes at Clemson and eight for the season) and emerging freshman power back Elijah Hood.

So if Carolina can beat the Hokies for the second straight time in Kenan and come back from Notre Dame with, at worst, a 3-3 record, they have a fighting chance to make the same kind of run toward a bowl game as last year.

The Tar Heels’ national brand may still be basketball, but the school isn’t about to give up football. No matter what the TV talking heads say, or don’t say.