Duke basketball: Three scheduled games per year against UNC?

Maybe Duke should play UNC on a neutral court every December.

Duke basketball versus UNC basketball (Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports)

One logical way to boost annual ratings is by scheduling more of what the people want most. And it's been no secret over the years that fans worldwide crave the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry, which rarely fails in producing thrilling finishes and drama galore.

The Blue Devils and Tar Heels square off twice per regular season, once on each team's home floor. But according to ESPN president of programming and original content Burke Magnus, it's not out of the question that the number of clashes between Tobacco Road's two bluebloods could increase in coming years.

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On Wednesday, Magnus was a guest on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast. During his appearance, he talked about the need to "get creative with the ACC to continue to try and unearth new incremental value that will benefit their members in terms of the financial picture of the conference long term."

Responding to the clever idea of simply scheduling more UNC-Duke basketball bouts each year, Magnus didn't rule it out:

"Listen, I don't think anything is off the table from a consideration perspective. Sometimes, college sports tends to trap itself in its own tradition. By the way, tradition is also what we love about college sports, though. You can't throw everything out the window. But that's a perfect example of something where if you innovate around your most valuable assets, maybe there's a way to sort of get both things accomplished, right? And so all of that is on the table."

Magnus and host Andrew Marchand of the New York Post didn't delve into specifics about how a third — or more — UNC-Duke matchup each regular season could fit into the schedule and come to fruition, not to mention the resulting complications with the conference standings and whatnot.

However, Magnus did then summarize the importance of showcasing rivalries as a path to, again, creating new ways to give the people more of what they have proven to want most:

"Everybody talks about market size. The amount of time we spend thinking about market size, it pales in comparison to the amount of time we think about rivalries, right?...In college sports, it's the rivalries, it's the traditions, it's the brands that really aggregate audience."

He continued:

"So I'd be thinking about innovating around your strongest assets, like we were talking about with Duke and Carolina. I think that's an interesting idea I hadn't even thought of, but I may be stealing from Andrew."

Of course, the thought isn't exactly new. No, it was once a reality.

Return of a forgotten Duke-UNC basketball tradition?

The Dixie Classic (1949-60) was an eight-team tournament every December in Raleigh, including four teams from across the country and the "Big Four" North Carolina schools from the ACC: Duke, UNC, NC State, and Wake Forest.

And the Big Four Tournament (1971-81), featuring only the "Big Four," also took place every December and regularly resulted in an extra pre-conference meeting between the Blue Devils and Tar Heels.

Perhaps in this instance, the best solution for the future lies in the past. After all, revisiting a long-lost tradition to increase average ratings in a season would, in essence, be the opposite of throwing tradition out the window.

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