Duke coach David Cutcliffe on the "state championship" and possibility of playing N.C. State

DURHAM -- In his weekly Tuesday press conference, head coach David Cutcliffe was asked about the possibility of playing N.C. State every year. Since the two are in different divisions and not permanent crossover rivals, they only play home-and-home series on occasion (the two most recently met in 2008 and 2009, and, before that, 2000 and 2001). So, naturally, most years the game would have  to be a "non-conference game."

Cutcliffe isn't interested.

"No, I wouldn't do that," he said. "If we're going to play an ACC team, we're going to make it count. I know what people are saying. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. You've got to have rotators. I went through that in the SEC, you make decisions on who your permanent rival is on the cross side of things, and even getting into the economics for the rest of the conference, if all the sudden we're playing every year at NC State, Carolina and Wake and they are doing the same thing, the rest of them will say, 'hey, y'all are just taking a short bus ride. We're flying all over the place.'

"There's a lot of problems with that. It's not just, 'hey, we ought to be playing every year.' There's a lot of things involved beyond what people think about in that circumstance."

So, it's nothing against the Wolfpack in particular. The question of playing NC State came up in a conversation about the "state championship" (a preseason goal touted by UNC's Larry Fedora in a year when his team, ineligible for a bowl, had little else to aim for achieving).  Duke wins the mythical state championship with a 2-0 record over the Tar Heels and Wake Forest. UNC finished 1-2 with losses to Duke and the Demon Deacons, and NC State and Wake Forest are both 1-1 but will play each other Nov. 10.

When asked if he planned to put up a billboard commemorating the title (NC State put up "Our State" billboards around the Triangle this fall), Cutcliffe laughed.

"I hadn't gotten that far," he said. "We might have to have a croquet match amongst the coaches to decide that. I'm proud of what we've done in in-state games. Really, in all seriousness, I hadn't thought about it and haven't seen those billboards."

-- Laura Keeley