  It is well known that the deconfinement transition temperature for $SU(N_c)$
gauge theory is almost independent of $N_c$, and the transition is first order
for $N_c \ge 3$. In the real world ($N_c=3$, light quarks) it is a crossover
located far away from the pure gauge value. What happens to the transition
temperature at fixed fermion mass if the number of fermion flavors is held
constant ($N_f=2$) and $N_c$ is varied? There are multiple plausible stories,
only one of which appears to be true when the systems are simulated on the
lattice. I describe the physics issues which surround the question and my
lattice - based answer to it.
