Well, maybe football is catching on around here.

Got a text from a friend late Friday offering condolences for, quote, the performance of your Tar Heel athletic teams, unquote. I dashed one right back, acknowledging it WAS a disappointing performance against N.C. State in Kenan Stadium, but then I reeled off a few facts.

Such as Carolina’s field hockey team played in its eighth straight Final Four and lost in the national championship game; the men’s and women’s soccer teams were headed to their respective Final Fours – the women have since made it back for the first time in four years by upsetting South Carolina down there, and the men are one win away after shutting out Syracuse Sunday up there.

And, of course, I reminded my friend that the tag of a basketball school is usually on the mark, and especially so this season with a No. 3 national ranking coming today and a 7-0 start after sweeping the Maui Invitational earlier in the week.

So why the text of doom, I ask you. Well, it is because football is becoming more important, and the losses like Friday are taken harder by more fans than they used to be. UNC has tried hard to shake that basketball school tag by pumping millions into football since Butch Davis was here and, trying as it might, to overcome the NCAA investigations that began before Davis’ fourth and final season. Larry Fedora has brought the program almost all the way back from its three-year probation that included one post-season ban and the loss of 15 scholarships over three recruiting classes.

I imagine that also has something to do with why the Tar Heels are now taking opponents’ best shots on the football field as they have been on the basketball court for years. And why teams with losing records prepare hard and play harder against Carolina than anyone else. When you can beat your arch rival, it can save a season no matter how the other eleven games go. That’s what is happening lately, as football wins and losses are getting a lot more attention from our fans and fans of other schools. That’s a good sign – I guess.

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