Give the North Carolina football program credit. Until this season, the Tar Heels lost the right way.

They won games, of course. But they never won enough to compete for a national championship. Before he left for Texas, Mack Brown threatened to. But he never could get past Florida State on the field or the Tar Heels basketball program in the hearts of fans.

Tired of being to football what N.C. State has become to basketball, North Carolina turned serious and hired Butch Davis.

Davis came to campus four years ago with a big name, a fine pedigree and a challenge. The challenge was to win.

In the three seasons before this one, Davis went 4-8, 8-5 and 8-5. He did solid work, especially when you consider where he started.

But let’s be honest. Most seasons ACC football has as much in common with the Southern (apologies to Appalachian State) Conference as it does the SEC.

Davis went 3-5, 4-4 and 4-4 in the ACC.

But this season would be different. After quietly collecting big-time talent, this was the season Davis finally was going to unleash it.

Big-time football, however, does not come free. I remember spending a long day with coaches, players and sycophant boosters from a want-to-be (not North Carolina) national contender.

The sleaze was such that when I returned to the hotel I wanted to scrape the bottom of my shoes and find an antibacterial soap with a degreasing agent to wash my hands.

Maybe there’s a way to become a national power and remain pure.

But the Tar Heels haven’t found it. Players might have accepted improper benefits. A tutor might have helped players write papers. And recruiting coordinator and associate head coach John Blake and agent Gary Wichard exchanged so many phone calls and texts they could have been in middle school.

Blake, who abruptly resigned Sunday, is considered a master recruiter. It’s fair to say that if he were a basketball coach he probably would have learned his trade in the AAU.

I have no idea what NCAA and in-house investigations will reveal.

But I know this.

For decades the Tar Heels have claimed the high moral ground, big-time football’s dirt and grime never rubbing against the hem of their freshly pressed khaki pants.

So what if they failed to compete for national football championships? At least they didn’t cheat. Therefore North Carolina was entitled to make fun of Florida State and the SEC and everybody else accused of winning the wrong way.

No more. The Tar Heels have forfeited, for years if not for decades, the right to condescend.

The next time people complain about an out-of-control program in which rules are little more than a mild suggestion, they probably are talking about North Carolina.