There is an analogy from either Al Capp, Poor Richard or The Venerable Bede that says “Place one hand in a pot of boiling water and the other hand on a block of ice and, on average, you should be quite comfortable”. Huh?

For UNC Athletics, the pot of boiling water included Marvin Austin, Greg Little, Jennifer The Tutor, Blake, Butch, Dickie, The BOT3, Uncle Julius, etc, etc, etc.

Now assorted UNC Faculty members are ready to provide the block of ice including UNC unilaterally eliminating freshmen eligibility and a few other suitcase nuke-type proposals. “Unilaterally”, for those of you in Chatham County means, “regardless of whether any other schools do so or not”.

In other words, extremes of fire or ice are “The Flagship’s” only options?

If this latest extreme is invoked, UNC Athletics, at least Football and Men’s Basketball, would likely be an unrecognizable pile of rubble. “Comfortable” won’t be an option.

Wait a minute; I’m supposed to write about “last Saturday’s game”. Carolina lost to VaTech 27-17. An L is an L but that is not as bad a score differential as many had anticipated. Is 27-17 indicative of Carolina’s current significant talent-void, or VaTech’s anemic offense? Others can and will ruminate on that.

Who lit the fuse that led to Marvin Austin’s infamous tweet and all the spiders and snakes that subsequently crawled out of the basement of UNC Athletics? That can be the subject of a History Channel mini-series and/or at least a book or two or twelve. “How Carolina Lost It’s Way” is my favorite title and, yes, I have it copyrighted.

If you are really tired of discussing The Great Unpleasantness, aka The Butch Davis Scandal, I feel your pain. I’m tired of The Kardashians, GEICO commercials, and Reverend Bill Barber. I see no relief in sight for any of us…sigh, sob.

Last Friday UNC Admissions Director Steve Farmer addressed a faculty forum on athletics. A “faculty forum” is different from “a blue-ribbon committee”, “an ad-hoc committee”, and “a lynch mob,” but contains elements of each.

Here is the link to the story of that meeting. Finish this column then come back and open the link.

Not every university in America has a bell tower, but most do. Not every college campus has severe parking issues, but most do. EVERY college however DOES have (1) ongoing issues involving sex, drugs and alcohol and (2) a faction of faculty strongly anti-athletics. Specifically anti the emphasis on Big Time college athletics.

That faculty faction at Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, Texas A&M and a handful of other schools is as quiet and hidden as Anne Frank in her attic, and for darn good reasons. The penalty for speaking out about their concerns could be career-suicidal, at least on those campuses. That would have been the case around Chapel Hill at the height of The Dean Smith Era, but not so much over the past decade, and particularly not so now. Marvin, Greg, Julius et al have created “open season” on UNC Football & Basketball.

The Extreme BCS Or Bust Faction gained undue influence in the hiring and subsequent turning over of UNC Football to Butch Davis to “bring BCS-level talent to UNC”. The full assessment of the institutional damages of that ego-driven decision is still being measured and may not be known for quite a few years.

To be fair to Butch, Blake et al, Julius Nyang’oro was running his little AfAm scam long before the Davis Family moved to Meadowmont. And Butch Davis did not recruit PJ.

If “the powers that be” (and no one really knows who that includes) decides to let the anti-athletics faction of UNC’s Faculty “try it their way”, the resulting damages may be as tsunamic a devastation-in-reverse as we’ve witnessed the past three years. Ergo, the pot of boiling water replaced by the block of ice.

I don’t know how this is all going to shake out. The poet Robert Frost apparently did not either:

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Go back and open that link. Grab hold of something ‘cause we’re in for a bumpy ride.

PS: If you missed our Good Sports interview with Kristen “Balbiz” Balboni you missed “a good’un”.

More BobLee at www.bobleesays.com