The litany of hose jobs suffered by NC State at the hands of the NCAA continued Monday, when the Wolfpack was inexplicably predictably left out of the national baseball tournament.
Cemented in all quarters as a two-seed in the upcoming regionals, the Pack was left out in a development that can only be read as payback for the withering criticism dealt the NCAA from all quarters after last year's circus-like expulsion of the team in the midst of the College World Series.
You might be forgiven if you can no longer keep the slights straight, so last year is when State -- on the verge of a national championship in most eyes -- was removed from the tourney in the middle of the night after a controversial COVID testing scenario.
Lambasted from all sides, the NCAA doubled down on the football side by refusing to deal UCLA a forfeit after the Bruins randomly decided not to play the Wolfpack an hour before the Holiday Bowl. Then tripled down by giving No. 2 seed UConn a home game in its Elite Eight matchup with No. 1 NC State in this year's NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament.
While it may be argued as to which incident was most egregious against the Pack, the latest event feels the most "personal" based on last year's CWS fiasco. Even prominent national observers are calling attention to the triple standard of treatment toward NC State.
So what can be done? Well, Boo Corrigan is persona non grata among Wolfpack Nation at the minute due to the perception that he is rolling over while the NCAA lands body blow after body blow. However, the only recourse seems to be the imminent dissolution of the NCAA, which will be coming sooner rather than later, combined with a persistent national spotlight on the issue(s).
Of course, that doesn't help the Pack seniors, who likely had a title stolen from them and now have been robbed of a chance to compete for another one. And while State fans have grown accustomed to scenarios like this playing out, this one feels particularly painful, based on a perception that was a conscious decision to punish the Wolfpack for putting the NCAA on blast a season ago.
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