Well, had we gone down to Oklahoma or Arkansas and started arguing about
veterinary medicine schools, it's kind of like arguing about nuclear
fission in the Olympic[?] times. I mean, they were just trying to get
the damned university to run. They weren't in this level of detail. They
really did have—I mean, the leadership—it's hard to describe this—but if
you took the top five people in the leadership of several of those
states and looked at them in comparison with Bill Friday's people, you
know, there just wasn't any comparison in terms of capability, support
systems, and resources. I don't know why or how but, I mean, it's clear
to me, obviously, North Carolina put a lot of money into higher
education. And Friday had done—and had some extensive investments. That
obviously had a lot to do with that. So, to me, there was a lot more to
work with. Now, you can argue that that made it a lot harder and maybe
it did. But that's the balancing act I would do with North Carolina.
Because of the ten states I'd say—and even Florida, Florida might be the
other one to discuss. But there just wasn't that much there. Virginia is
an interesting case because of Jefferson and the University of Virginia.
And, indeed, Virginia at the time put a lot of effort into the
University of Virginia. But it didn't system-wide. Now, that's changed
some. But North Carolina really had a lot going. That's, you know, just
an observation. If you looked at, you know, what happened in the six
states I would—had it been a question of just everybody doing the same
level of effort I would have expected the outcomes in North Carolina to
have been a lot better. Because I think they started from a much better
base.