The power of perception in war and football

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

Some say the truth isn't nearly as important as what people perceive the truth to be. So many of life's difficulties and unhappy surprises dwell in that gulf between our view of ourselves and the assessments that others make of us. It is true of people, and institutions, and nations.

The Confederacy won the first battle of the Civil War, a thundering victory at Bull Run that was as much the result of blind luck as anything else. Both armies were at the time little more than armed mobs, with virtually no combat veterans in the ranks, and few officers with legitimate military experience.

When a single, random cannonball happened to explode on the only bridge leading back to Washington, what had been an orderly Union retreat turned instantly into headlong blind panic.

Military historian Paddy Griffith writes that the events of that first battle, events owing largely to pure chance, set the tone for everything that was to follow. "Having lost the first major contest, the Federals formed a low opinion of themselves, and a correspondingly high opinion of the Confederates. Still more to the point, perhaps, was that the Confederates came to precisely the same conclusion."

For at least two more years after Bull Run, Union generals tended to be overly timid and cautious, and the Confederates operated with an often reckless bravado. And all because of their shared perceptions of each other.

When Florida State joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1992, it was thought that the marriage would cause the league's football fortunes to rise, and at the same time the Seminoles' basketball program would become reinvigorated and strengthened through its ACC association. Six years later, the perception is that neither of those two things has happened.

A September headline in the Charlotte Observer proclaimed: FSU Could Hit Rock Bottom In Basketball. This sarcastic lead followed: "Florida State is making an impressive bid - on paper - to unseat Virginia, the favorite all summer, in the ACC Basketball cellar this season."

And in football, despite the early loss to North Carolina State, FSU still owns the distinction of winning more than 50 games in the Conference against just two defeats.

The media perception is pretty well typified by Brett McMurphy, columnist for the Tampa Tribune. Five days before the N.C. State game, McMurphy wrote, "For those who argue that Florida State annually plays the nation's toughest non-league schedule because the ACC's so weak, let's get one thing straight: you're right."

After we lost in Raleigh, the Democrat ran this hopeful headline: Wolfpack Win May Help Dispel ACC's Weak Image. But the prevailing image of the ACC as a football conference is that of, well, a basketball league. The St. Pete Times dismissed the game as "Bowden's renowned offense [turning into] hopeless hash against ACC football nobody N.C. State."

There is a hope - if you'll call it that - among many in the ACC that beating Florida State will somehow translate into increased respect for the league. Such feelings are misplaced. When teams in the SEC beat Florida, it didn't shift the public's perception of the league; it changed their perception of the Gators.

For the ACC to step up as a first-rate football league, its teams are going to have to beat good teams outside the conference. This season's opening games delivered decidedly mixed report cards. Virginia shut out the SEC's Auburn, and Duke routed Northwestern. But North Carolina lost to The Alternate Miami, Wake was mauled by Air Force, and Clemson got blanked by Virginia Tech.

But now that we have chewed over what the perception is of the iceberg above the waterline, let's take a look at what's going on underneath.

The important ventures slowly churning their way through the ACC, mostly outside the comprehensive public consciousness, are extremely dramatic. There is a strong, layered calculus of enhancements, improvements, accomplishments and complements solidifying into a foundation throughout the league.

Here are some of the enterprises underway now - things unheard of, undreamed of, really - before our Seminoles came on board seven years ago:

• Virginia, armed with a $25-million check from a former football player, is increasing the size of the stadium, installing a video screen and luxury boxes - pouring $50 million into football.
• Wake Forest's new $25-million Bridger Center is devoted entirely to football.
• North Carolina's new Kenan Football Complex, a $50-million project just completed, is devoted exclusively to football.
• Georgia Tech and Clemson already have some of the finest facilities in the nation.
• North Carolina State will spend $40-50 million after this season upgrading all the facilities within the football stadium.

Another trend now only gently nibbling at the edges of collective perception is talent. The ACC led all conferences, contributing seven of the first 19 players taken in the 1998 NFL Draft. All those fellows were recruited into the league after Florida State joined.

And what of Seminole basketball? Well, we probably are in for a rough patch for awhile. But the interior of the Civic Center is being wrenched through an $18-million renovation that will turn a civic arena into a legitimate basketball facility, complete with upper deck seating closer to the court, restaurants and luxury boxes.

Our facility will never again be a recruiting negative.

It takes time for reality to catch up with perception, but once it passes by, perception changes very quickly. Stick around; the story's just getting interesting.