Yay...it's that time again.

Well, here we are again...wrapping up another year of ACC basketball. You know what that means boys and girls! It's time for the second installment of this year's BATTLE OF THE BLUEZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!

*gag*

Look, we all get it. These are two of the top college basketball programs. They're playing for the mythical "regular season championship" (the true champion being decided, of course, in the ACC tournament...this game is for the #1 seed, essentially). It features great players and great coaches and great fans on both sides and the tickets cost a bazillion dollars a piece and yada yada yada.

We get all that.

It just makes me, and and I think a lot of State and ACC fans, sick to our freaking stomachs.

Say what you will about expansion ruining ACC basketball (and it's hurt), but the real poison to the league to me has been the over-adulation these two teams receive leading up to these games every year. The national sports networks are glad to cram every Duke and Carolina highlight down your throat at every opportunity during the week prior, but did anyone notice (or care) that Duke and Carolina actually PLAYED other games this week?

Apparently the Carolina fans didn't care so much about their game against Florida State, and the Carolina players called them out for it. You think there would've been a different story had Duke's game against UVA been in Cameron? These two games only mattered insomuch as they could've been spoilers for TEH GREATEST MATCHUP KNOWN TO MAN (this month).

Oh, did anyone give a sh*t that Miami--a team picked to finish dead last in the league--all but punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament with a win over Boston College? Probably not. Not hard to fathom, though, since the highlights for the game probably came after some extended interviews with Quentin Thomas and his burgeoning rap career.

Yes, pretty much the rest of the league is here only to prop up The Blues. To increase their RPI, give them some quality wins, a couple of losses to make them seem somewhat-less-than-perfect, and then to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY when these two teams face one another.

It's the ultimate "The Rich Getting Richer" scenario. With ESPN and every other major sports network fawning over these two, the other 10 teams in the league have been relegated to "also ran" status, and if you're a recruit out there trying to decide whom to play for, can you really ignore the preferential treatment these two teams receive? It's why each and every year Duke and Carolina pick three-four McDonald's AAs, and you might have six or seven sprinkled throughout the rest of the league.

So America, here it is, THE BATTLE OF THE BLUES. Lap it up all you want. You'll get heavy doses of it, for sure.

Me, I could freaking care less. I'd tell both of them to go jump in a freaking river. Is it sour grapes, envy, jealousy? Yeah. But so what. F Duke, and F Carolina.