(12-13-2011 12:18 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(12-13-2011 11:56 AM)Capital Pirate Wrote:  

(12-13-2011 11:50 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  Duke - 28,7

With all due respect, the fact that you would post this (and rely on it) shows that you (like most of the posters here) know nothing about college football in the State of North Carolina.

...but keep on keeping on if it makes you feel better about your opinion.

It's snide remarks like this that prevent there from ever being an intelligent discussion about ECU's situation. So much time & effort is wasted by some ECU fans whining about how unfair it all is that you miss the reasons why ECU isn't being included. All some of you seem to do is play the victim card.

I'm not pretending to know what the situation for college football is in NC. Frankly if Duke & Wake didn't exist, you'd still have a problem as the 3rd school in a state with a population of 9 million when the flagship & the 2nd school both have higher attendance than you do. Furthermore, you're aspiring to a basketball-first conference & you have a terrible basketball program which draws no fans. Those are both real problems whether you like it or not.

What I said about Duke & wake is based on their reported attendance. Even if those attendance figures are way off, they still draw some fans. That's all I was saying; you can't simply write off those numbers as if they don't exist even though they're lower than ECU's. If it's off by 20%, they still combine for about the same number of fans in the stadium as ECU. Those are fans whose interests lie somewhere else. When TV networks look at NC, they see 4 schools that are part of a TV contract & wonder how they're going to generate enough interest in the state for a 5th school in 2 sports. Even though Duke & Wake don't individually draw a lot of fans, they still are part of the ACC TV package & they'll still get fans of other ACC teams watching their games. Because of their location, they don't have to pull viewers in based only on their own merits like ECU does. That's unfortunate, but it's the reality.

In NC, 3 schools report attendance of 50K+. That's one issue. But 3 other schools report attendance of 25K+ & combine for 80K+. You can ignore that at your own peril but the media consultants that the Big East hires aren't ignoring it. To play the victim card & act as if you're simply the victim of bias is not living in the real world.

Half the time, Duke doesn't even have 20,000 in Durham. The only way they do is if the road team brings the fans. ECU is more popular in football statewide than Duke or Wake and they rival NC State very well in statewide popularity. Raleigh's market is drawn to within 15 miles of Greenville one town over literally in our county. They don't ask teams for showcase games in Charlotte if a team can't draw. ECU has been there about 7 times now. They have proven ability to travel to bowls and fill the seats. That's all that matters for television purposes.
There is more than enough market for East Carolina in the nation's 10th largest state to warrent inclusion. Always was. Always will be.
BCS or not.

Virginia, Navy, Virginia Tech, NC State, North Carolina, Temple, Syracuse, WVU, Miami, Cincinnati and all these other various schools haven't set up home and homes with ECU over the past 30 years if ECU isn't worthy of holding up their end. And they have....
NC State leads the ECU series 16-11 with most of the games played on their home field dating back to the 1970's. ECU beat NC State in the 1970's. Beat North Carolina in the 1970's. Beat Virginia Tech several times in the 1980's and 1990's and beat Miami two of the last three games. They were ranked in the top 9 both times and in the top 3 the week before. ECU has nothing to prove to this bunch in the Big East. ECU is 1-0 vs Boise State and 2-1 vs TCU. They are 6-5 vs Houston, 9-2 vs UCF, 15-3 vs Cincinnati. ECU already beat the teams who left for the ACC. Twice beat the team who just left for the Big 12. ECU beat Missouri, Texas Tech, Pitt, & Stanford along the way. We have nothing to prove to any former DIAA football program. ECU has been D1A since the advent of D1 in 1978.

East Carolina opened three bowls in this country and played in more than enough bowls to long since deserve to be in a BCS league. Shouldn't matter how many teams are in our state when ECU is the third most popular anyway in football in a top 10 state. To say ECU with the 2nd largest non BCS following in the COUNTRY isn't good enough "market wise" for the Big East is utter bull****

Greenville is the fastest growing city in what will be the nation's 7th largest state in 15 years. There is more than ample census data to back that up. Population migration is growing to the southeast faster than any other region. If you can park 7 BCS teams in Texas and five in Florida, you can sure have five in North Carolina when Duke doesn't even care about football and Wake doesn't even outdraw ECU anyway. NC State barely outdraws ECU only because ECU hasn't gone to 60,000 seats yet. Third largest school in the state = Texas Tech in Texas. ECU is pretty much level with NC State in football and not far behind North Carolina either.

It's not like their basketball isn't getting better. They beat Memphis, UAB and UCF last year. They beat a 9-1 Coast Carolina team last NIGHT who just beat both LSU and Clemson and beat them by 25 points.

To act like a BCS ECU wouldn't draw even more fans, excitement to both our market and to the league, add more recruits that will end up in the ACC otherwise and end up drawing even more population to our region is disingenous. It's not like the Big East doesn't have more than enough markets already too so now it comes down to COMPETITON. A brand new market in North Carolina would have been good for the Big East on the east coast. ECU leads Conference USA in attendance among these so-called big markets. For some of these folks to come in here and say ECU should be in the SunBelt is laughable when the very guys saying that put less than a thousand in the Liberty Bowl for Conference USA football at home and have never played in their own bowl while ECU has been there four times. Once chosen over the Conference USA champ as mandated by the bowl sponsor and the bowl itself before ECU was in Conference USA after winning two LB Alliance titles in the mid 1990's. Twice in a row on two separate occasions.

How would you guys feel if you were cheated out of being able to play while these other teams who haven't done any more get to play instead?
While they park west coast teams in the Big East? And teams who have done absolutely nothing in 25 years. If these markets are so great, they'd outdraw East Carolina. Until you can, folks in the Big East and CUSA really ought to pipe down about ECU's market when they're the only ones who even look authentic in football among all of these candidates.

What is "market" doing for Temple in football? Or Cincinnati, Tampa, Orlando, Louisville, Syracuse, Pitt or UConn? You don't outdraw us.
That's just an excuse to avoid what has been solid competition between ECU and both CUSA and Big East teams for decades. The only reason to leave ECU out is to GIVE all our region's recruits to the ACC. Not sure how the Big East benefits from propping up
the ACC.
You think ECU can't beat Boise State? Go ask them if ECU can. Go ask Bolger or Avon or White if ECU can't beat WVU. Go ask Van Pelt if ECU
can beat Pitt. Go ask Coach P if ECU can beat Syracuse. Go ask Pitino. Go ask Crean. Go ask Lutz. Go ask Lorenzo Romar. Go ask Tom Penders.
Ask Mike Davis or Matt Doherty if ECU should be in the SunBelt. Go ask
Dan Morgan or Santana Moss or Reggie Wayne or Wayne Portis if ECU belongs in the Sun Belt.