In a suds-saturated town like Chapel Hill, where a lively night life and often robust police blotter are symptomatic of alcohol consumption, or overconsumption, as the case may be, it's hard to imagine what would strike a note discordant enough to stimulate community conversation.

But positions being staked in a variety of circles as the result of UNC exploring the possibility of selling wine and beer at home football games.

Part of the justification that has been heard from supporters is that UNC and Duke are the lone holdouts in the Atlantic Coast Conference when it comes to allowing football-watching fans to sip on the fruit of the vine or to toss back a chilly one. That rings a lot like the situation many parents find themselves in when dealing with boisterous children who want to engage in this or that behavior because "everybody's doing it."

That's just not the most compelling of defenses.

Some supporters claim that prohibiting the service of adult beverages inside Kenan Stadium is a naive approach if it is meant to prevent indulging on game day. Tailgaters are quaffing cold ones, fraternities and dorm dwellers are hosting pre-game parties, and at least some of the legions are well lubricated by the time they show up for kickoff, the thinking goes.

True enough, but doesn't providing additional intoxicants inside sound something akin to the cliche about adding gasoline to the fire?

Still, advocates opine, the alcoholic refreshments would not be sold to the great masses of fans, but would be made available only to those able to afford sitting on their sufficiently thick wallets in private suites and club boxes. As for the folks in the cheap seats, while let them eat cake.

Which, of course, makes the thirsty hordes who can't pay for skybox seats cry "elitism," and advocate for drinks all around. It's not hard to imagine that opening the door to any sort of alcohol sales will be an inevitable invitation to much more liberal -- and available -- provision of alcoholic beverages.

Opening Kenan Stadium to alcohol is, as Dick Baddour, UNC athletic director and adherent of such a policy, called it, "a philosophical issue." We don't know what's wrong with the old philosophy of keeping the stadium family friendly, protecting the town from inebriated drivers leaving the stadium and just going to see a ballgame for the sake of the sport and not as an excuse for getting snockered. Besides, in an environmentally conscious town like Chapel Hill, think how many flushes will be saved by keeping the stadium dry.