It's a Thursday night ... so the Seminoles must be in North Carolina

If its Thursday and it's in October, Florida State must be coming to North Carolina for a football game.

This week, the Seminoles are at N.C. State Thursday night in the biggest game of Tom O'Brien's Wolfpack tenure. O'Brien's previous State teams have started 1-5, 2-6 and 3-5, so Carter-Finley hasn't seen an important game this deep into the season in a while.

Throw in the fact that its a nationally televised game, and you have high stakes for the Pack. For FSU, though, this is standard fare. The Seminoles have played a Thursday night game in the state of North Carolina the previous four seasons. And this marks the fourth straight time the FSU game at N.C. State has been on Thursday night.

"It is weird how it always works out," Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday. "It always stinks for us, because Thursday games are always away. But it's something we've got to deal with … I guess whenever we go to North Carolina, it's a Thursday night."