On the eve of the much-anticipated gridiron match-up between the upset-minded University of North Carolina and the seventh-ranked University of South Carolina — billed as the “Border War” — the Charlotte Observer contrasts the two schools to determine which Carolina is the REAL Carolina. And in a geographic-role-reversal, the Palmetto State comes out on top.

The debate dates to Colonial times, according to a local historian, and is heating up in anticipation of Saturday’s matchup between USC and UNC , the first time the two teams have met on a football field since 1991.

And the TV broadcast of the game puts announcers smack in the middle of the debate.

South Carolina fans have complained that during sports matchups between the teams, broadcasters refer to North Carolina as “Carolina,” but generally call USC “South Carolina.”

ABC announcers Dave Lamont, Jesse Palmer and Vince Welch will try to stay out of the battle of the Carolinas by identifying the teams specifically as “North Carolina” and “South Carolina,” said Mike Humes, spokesman for ESPN, an ABC affiliate.

South Carolina has history on its side, said Walter Edgar, a South Carolina history professor and director of USC’s Institute for Southern Studies.

In the late 1690s, when Carolina was a province stretching from southern Virginia into Florida, Charleston was the capital, and the northeastern part of the province was referred to as “North Carolina,” he said.

“North Carolina fans just have to deal with that. From the beginning, they were never the real Carolina,” Edgar said. “The North Carolina fans will just have to get over it, but they probably never will.”

South Carolina is the real Carolina because it typically has better football and baseball teams, even if North Carolina has a better basketball team, said David Hord, a lifetime Gamecock fan and football season ticket holder for 28 years.

South Carolina is “the real Carolina; we’re the home of the South, really,” he said. [MARJORIE RIDDLE - McClatchy Newspapers]

The game will be televised live tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. on ABC from Chapel Hill, N.C.

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Photo:Scout.com