Rivalry revelry

There was some heartburn over the title of the upcoming "State of Disunion" book because it has "Carolina-Clemson" instead of "Clemson-Carolina."

I expected nothing less.

Some people have asked me if I'm perturbed by the criticism. The answer is, Heck no.

This is what makes a rivalry great. Little things that might otherwise seem insignificant are big things to some people. It's not rooted in logic, but how much of passion and hatred and bad blood is logical?

Here's the deal with the title:

For some time, the rough working title agreed upon by co-author Travis Haney and me was "State of Disunion: Bad Blood and Classic Clashes in the Palmetto State Football Feud."

Had a nice ring to it, but two problems: 1) It was a bit long, and 2) We needed to identify the two schools in the title to optimize the Internet search process.

So the publishers at The History Press of Charleston opted to feature Clemson and Carolina prominently in the title, and they went with "Carolina-Clemson" for two reasons: 1) because in the dominant cover photo, Carolina is on the left and Clemson on the right; and 2) because "a" comes before "l" in the alphabet.

I can understand why fans of both sides would prefer -- and strongly so -- that their school come first whenever the rivalry is referenced. But the thing is, inside the Palmetto State the rivalry is so seldom referenced with both schools included. If you're a Carolina fan, it's "the Clemson game." If you're a Clemson fans, it's "the Carolina game." That's really the way it's always been, dating to the rivalry's primitive days in the early-1900s. And for a number of years, mainly the 1940s and 1950s, it was referred to simply as "Big Thursday."

When we think of other rivalries across the nation, I'm not sure why we put certain teams first. It's the "Duke-Carolina" rivalry in basketball, and "Carolina-Duke" just sounds kind of weird. I've heard "Alabama-Auburn," but I've heard "Auburn-Alabama" just as much. Seems that "Florida-Florida State" is used more commonly than "Florida State-Florida," and maybe the "State" at the end is the reason for that.

Is it "Ohio State-Michigan" or "Michigan-Ohio State?" Not sure which is more common.

Seems like "Kentucky-Louisville" is more common than "Louisville-Kentucky."

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have included "Carolina-Clemson" or "Clemson-Carolina" because that's not a dominant part of the rivalry's lexicon within this state's borders. And within this state's borders is really the only place where the rivalry actually matters.

But there's really no right or wrong way to do it ... unless you're a fan on either side.

And that's really the beauty of it.

LW