Reeves Thompson is a member of the Student Wolfpack Club board and part of the 2015 class of Economics majors.  He’s a guy with passion for NC State athletics and, not surprisingly, a college student with opinions.  Rather then go on a message board and begin a thread for discussion amongst it’s members or Tweeting, Reeves opted to begin his own blog concerning things that pique his interest.  Therefore, may we present to you… Raised By Red Wolves!

SIDE NOTE:  Do any of the following apply to you:
1) ‘I want to write and share my views on things but don’t really want to have to spend time on webmastering.’
2) ‘I already have a site that you may not have heard of.’
3) ‘I have been thinking about creating my own blog, but I’m not sure what’s involved, if I want my own site or where to start.’
If so, please contact us via our feedback form and let us know what you are thinking.  WolfpackWorld is supportive of anyone who wants to start their own NC State blog and believes that the more people talking about NC State, on and off campus, the stronger the community will be.  Whether you are evaluating hosting options, wanting to contribute content to WolfpackWorld, or whether you just want to get word out about your blog, let us know and we’ll help in any way we can. [/end side note...]

THOUGHTS ON DINING AND THE OVERALL WOLFPACK MENTALITY

Reeves’ first article was on University Dining and the ongoing perception that because Dining has raised their meal plan prices that students are somehow being given the short-end of the stick.  Here at WolfpackWorld, we broke down the individual meal plans to determine if they were a good buy, but Reeves took a more ‘industry study’ approach by comparing our plans to other institutions.

What is more interesting is this tidbit about the overall Wolfpack mentality that is tucked away in his conclusion…

Its not just about dining either, whether we are talking about attendance for the first football game of the year, the “our state” ad campaign, the football ticket commercials, and basically anything else to do with NC State there always seems to be more NC State people trashing NC State than any other group. You know what, sometimes its good to stand up for your school and not be cynical about every single thing that becomes public about it.

Bingo.

I think it should be stated that this kind of mentality isn’t always a bad thing.  Driven individuals are always their worst critics.  The difference is that when NC State students are blissfully ignorant of what is going on and just choose to react instead of educate themselves, they end up looking silly.  Yesterday’s article on the Wolfpack fan base’s reaction to Gary Stokan’s “criticism” of our ticket sales for the 2012 Chik-Fil-A kick-off game is a prime example of this affect: rather than considering what Stokan was actually doing (motivating the fan base as evident by the concluding comments of his interview), many outlets began instantly criticizing the game time NC State had been given and making a myriad of excuses.

NC State could use a little bit of optimism.  So much of an institution’s “mood” is tied to their athletic identity, especially since your athletics, primarily football, men’s basketball, and to a growing extent baseball, represent the largest PR machine a university has.  I don’t blame generations of NC State fans for their sour attitudes, especially when you consider the lack of performance NC State has seen since the 1990′s in our main revenue sports (2 Sweet Sixteen appearances in over 20 years of hoops and no ACC football championships in the last 30).  That being said, there is a fine line between realistic cynicism and counter-productive belly-aching. 

We are who we are.  If anyone else doesn’t like it or wants to make fun of us, they can go fuck off.  If one of our own doesn’t like it, then can leave, keep it to themselves, or try to create positive change for the better.  But overall, as Reeves correctly pointed out, it seems NC State is it’s own biggest critic.  Until we start acting like we actually want to be a part of this institution, athletic program, and alumni family, don’t be surprised when the media and our rivals keep taking shots at us.