It’s no secret that lawmakers love to flaunt regional foodstuffs whenever they can. But a seemingly half-hearted basketball game wager involving chain restaurant fried chicken is really scraping the bottom of the sports-betting barrel.

The action: The 2011 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic featuring the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and Michigan State Spartans playing the first game aboard the Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

The pot: Michigan Democratic Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow are on the hook for a case of Vernors Ginger Ale, the Detroit soft drink rumored to be our nation’s oldest ginger ale. North Carolina Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan has countered … with Bojangles’ chicken.

Bojangles’? Really?

Yes, Bojangles’ originated in Charlotte. But it’s hardly a North Carolina delicacy. And it’s certainly not in any short supply; for God’s sake, they have a stand in the Union Station food court (about a half-mile walk from the Senate office buildings).

If Hagan wanted to show some home state support, why not offer up some hot, delicious bird from Price’s Chicken Coop? Hell, we might even have turned a blind eye if some Lexington-style barbecue (cliché, but so damn good) had been put into play.

But perhaps we’re a little too food-obsessed over here…

Meanwhile, check out this time-lapse of how they transformed the ship’s flight deck into a basketball arena in one week.