So much for all the fluff from the C-USA board about how everyone is "so happy" with C-USA

Jackson




ANDREW JONES

Pirates may be stuck between a rock and a hard


When East Carolina's search for a greener pasture in football landed it in Conference USA eight years ago, and in all sports a few years later, it didn't envision the league's current condition.

Off to the Big East next summer are C-USA's top football/basketball combo programs from Louisville and Cincinnati. South Florida, Marquette and DePaul are also heading to the Big East. TCU is joining the Mountain West Conference and Charlotte and St. Louis are moving to the Atlantic 10.

The landscape of C-USA is changing and it's not for the better. Conference USA as we know it is a solid football league and top heavy in hoops. But when Tulsa, Rice, SMU, UTEP, Marshall and Central Florida join on July 1, 2005, the league may not be as strong as the Western Athletic Conference in football or the Mid-American Conference in basketball.

Marshall will continue to excel on the gridiron and Tulsa and Memphis should usually have nice basketball squads. But the other schools offer very little, if anything, in the revenue sports.

Because of its recent football woes, ECU has lost the recognition it held on the gridiron just a few years ago, and has become an obscure football program, like many of the schools joining the league.

That the Pirates were more successful prior to entering C-USA may only be a coincidence, but the reality is rebuilding will be harder when aligning with a cast of characters more suited as homecoming fodder for bigger programs than rivals for a school with ECU's aspirations.

The Atlantic Coast Conference's continued rise on the field and its expansion, adding Virginia Tech and Miami this summer and Boston College next year, will only make life more difficult for ECU.

ECU suddenly finds itself in a mediocre at-best conference with little room to grow. Travel for non-revenue sports is expensive and only Marshall could likely develop into a legitimate regional rival.

Thus, it's time for the brass at ECU to seek alternatives.

The school must hire an athletic director with a vision. No moves will be made as long as Nick Floyd is interim athletic director.

ECU must either hire him permanently or get someone else.

The school made noise about wanting to join the ACC last summer but was never taken seriously and likely never will. They also wined and dined folks from the Big East but more than fell short of receiving an offer. But with an athletic director in place it should go for it again – but for football only.

The Big East needs teams, and after being pillaged by the ACC would do well in grabbing a program in the heart of ACC country.

Plus, ECU has some football culture and just a few years ago was far stronger than Cincinnati and was at least as good – and often better – than Louisville.

ECU will never gain full membership into the Big East, which is fine. It can try to get back into the Colonial Athletic Association for all other sports.

And after the CAA added Georgia State earlier this week, it's clear a football conference isn't the only thing on CAA commissioner Tom Yeager's mind, since GSU doesn't have a gridiron team.

Travel costs will be cut and the Pirates' baseball program will play a competitive schedule in the CAA. Conference USA's power rating is No. 7, the CAA's is No. 11, but 45-8 ECU is a big reason C-USA is the higher-profile baseball conference.

Conference USA has been good to ECU in several areas, but the league's future doesn't appear stable, and its members' interests and locations don't appear to mesh with ECU.

While Pirates' fans don't flock to games like some might have you believe, they still have a nice solid base of support and will embrace Big East membership.

A return to the CAA in other sports would also rekindle the hoops rivalry with UNC-Wilmington, and playing Big East football will fulfill many purple and gold dreams.

It won't be easy and may not be possible, but is the most sensible approach. Because otherwise ECU will be a vagabond program with a beautiful, but empty, stadium.

Andrew Jones can be reached at andrew.jones@starnewsonline.com

:stupid: :stupid:

Gee guy, did the article get your panties all squinched up? Let me give you a quote about the author of that opinion piece from capital pirate on the CUSA board.

Quote:FTR (as was made clear the FIRST time this was posted)....the writer of this "opinion" piece has NO connection to ECU WHATSOEVER....he is a beat writer for the Wilmington,NC (a town 3+hours from Greenville) Star who lives in Raleigh, NC - and has admitted subsequent to writing the piece that he is a devout UNC-ch/ACC fan.......

OK, you can start pulling the wedgie out of your kitty kat!

:snore:

Why so rude Gray Beard...no one has defended ECU more on these boards then I have....It seems to me it doesn't make a big difference if the writer is connected to ECU or not...he was just offering his thoughts and I don't think he was too far off....it seems like it is a very well know secert that the Pirates are unhappy in C-USA...At least the Memphis fans acknowledge that there school is unhappy....most of you ECU people seem like you are just putting your head in the sand and pretending that you school is actullay happy with the road trips to Houston and El Paso

Jackson

[Get real and be honest Jackson, you are a football fan going on a road trip....would you rather go to El Paso/Juarez , Houston or frigin Syracuse???? QUOTE]


--Frankly...I want to go to the place that is the closest and cheapest...Which is why WVU's schedule is great...we will be playing Pitt, Louisville, UC and Maryland annually and all are within easy driving distance of WV

--Besides....watching the Mounties play Syracuse in the Carrier Dome isn't such a hardship :)

Jackson

Jackson1011 Wrote:So much for all the fluff from the C-USA board about how everyone is "so happy" with C-USA

Jackson

You don't really think that you've found some profound piece of evidence, do you. There are more than a few teams that are nervous about the future of CUSA (mine included).

...but the opinions of a hack sports writer pushing for them to move all sports other than football back to the CAA are laughable.

TopCoog Wrote:The carrier Dome is a dump when you could come to Houston and play is the best stadium in America, Reliant.

Hey TopCoog go ask fans of over "big name" schools whether they would rather play at Houston or at Syracuse. Look at the teams Syracuse has got to come to their "dump".

its true, ECU is not happy with being left out on a island in CUSA .we wanted the Big East.in the near future the BE will split. WVU, are great friend, will lobby hard for ECU, to be part of the expanded 12 team all sports conference that will spin off from the bball BE schools. i still stand by the notion that if, WVU and ECU win big, in the next few years. the SEC, will make the call, and add both these football first schools

Only ECU fans would even suggest that the SEC would want ECU. :rolleyes:

pirate65 Wrote:its true, ECU is not happy with being left out on a island in CUSA .we wanted the Big East.in the near future the BE will split. WVU, are great friend, will lobby hard for ECU, to be part of the expanded 12 team all sports conference that will spin off from the bball BE schools. i still stand by the notion that if, WVU and ECU win big, in the next few years. the SEC, will make the call, and add both these football first schools

ECU is a football school? Did I miss something or did you win 1 game last year? But you won 4 the year before so I guess that makes you a football school huh.
Why would the Big East want another Rutgers in football and a nobody in CUSA basketball? DId you win a road CUSA BBall game yet?

TopCoog Wrote:The carrier Dome is a dump when you could come to Houston and play is the best stadium in America, Reliant.

Time to put down the crack pipe Coog.

Houston does not play their games in Reliant Stadium. At least, not the college team.

Quote: massive renovation of Robertson Stadium took place in 1999, thanks to a $6 million gift from the John and Julie O'Quinn Foundation to the University of Houston. In addition to the 20 luxury suites added in the summer of 1998, "Phase I" entailed replacement of the current track with a ring of tiered seating, bringing the stadium's capacity to 32,000. To accommodate this tiered seating, the entire playing field was lowered nine feet.

As opposed to:

Quote:The Carrier Dome is a 50,000-seat sports stadium located on the campus of Syracuse University (SU). Since its opening on September 20, 1980, the facility has hosted a wide variety of events. The facility serves as the home of the SU Orangemen in football, men's basketball, and men's and women's lacrosse. Furthermore, the "Dome" has hosted numerous rounds of NCAA championships in basketball, lacrosse and track and field and hosts regional and state scholastic competitions in football, soccer and field hockey, as well as NBA pre-season games.

I mean, they AVERAGE more in BASKETBALL than you guys seat for football.

At least be a little realistic when you blather on about your program and their reservations at the head table of elitism.

Herd Swimming Wrote:Time to put down the crack pipe Coog.

Houston does not play their games in Reliant Stadium. At least, not the college team.

...not entirely true, UH is playing Rice at Reliant this year.

But overall, yeah, put the crack pipe down and step away!

Jackson1011 Wrote:Why so rude Gray Beard...no one has defended ECU more on these boards then I have....It seems to me it doesn't make a big difference if the writer is connected to ECU or not...he was just offering his thoughts and I don't think he was too far off....it seems like it is a very well know secert that the Pirates are unhappy in C-USA...At least the Memphis fans acknowledge that there school is unhappy....most of you ECU people seem like you are just putting your head in the sand and pretending that you school is actullay happy with the road trips to Houston and El Paso

Jackson

if the BE football schools split ,our great friend,WVU ,will lobby for ECU,to be part of that new league. now as far as great cities for things to do after going to a game .well CUSA is the best. New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, and Memphis are great towns and Tulsa and EL Paso are fun to.

pirate65 Wrote:if the BE football schools split ,our great friend,WVU ,will lobby for ECU,to be part of that new league.

Is ECU like the ugly girl who only gets dates because her more attractive friends set her up?

How about doing something about that joke of a basketball program and not have your football program going in the tank before you worry about joining a reformed BE. I'm going to guess that WVU won't lobby for you with consistent 4 win seasons (football or basketball...take your pick).

TopCoog Wrote:99 and Herd Swimming, we are playing Miami in Reliant this year as well as Rice. Your comment was stupid and uninformed. We can play our bigger games, and will, in Reliant anytime we wish. In fact we could play all our games there if we wished ,as could Rice. We played our home games in the Astrodome for 30 years right next door and last time I saw Syracuse in there the score was 30-0 Coogs at halftime.
As for the Carrier Dome, it is a dump. We have a stadium right next door to Reliant that no one uses that is three times better that the Carrier....

Again, what you can do is not relevant.

What you do, however, is relevant.

I'll liken it to playing St. John's in basketball.

If St. John's deems you a worthy opponent, you play them in Madison Square Garden. If they don't think you are a draw in town, they play you in 3,500 seat Alumni Hall.

So what you're saying is, Houston is going to line up all their conference foes in CUSA in Reliant? Good for you. If you guys take that step and your boosters are willing to step up to the plate and fill it, that would be just one more step in the right direction for the conference.

But it isn't what it going to happen. You are playing Rice there. You are playing Miami there.
Where are you playing your other four home games?

As for your throttling of Syracuse, thanks for the update on your score from 1970. Convenient how you left out your Liberty Bowl pasting at the hands of those rumdums 36 years later to even your series at 1-1.

jjburtzel Wrote:

pirate65 Wrote:if the BE football schools split ,our great friend,WVU ,will lobby for ECU,to be part of  that new league.

Is ECU like the ugly girl who only gets dates because her more attractive friends set her up?

How about doing something about that joke of a basketball program and not have your football program going in the tank before you worry about joining a reformed BE. I'm going to guess that WVU won't lobby for you with consistent 4 win seasons (football or basketball...take your pick).

you are right we need to win in both.or we are stuck in CUSA forever. i think ECU has gotten a wakeup call when we had an open, booster revolt, when we got our BOT to overthrow, the hireing of a glorified t shirt salesman as our AD :mad:

i think this article is total BS...the writer has already made a decision that C-USA is bad...so he will ignore the good...just so he can see the negative.

Quote:But when Tulsa, Rice, SMU, UTEP, Marshall and Central Florida join on July 1, 2005, the league may not be as strong as the Western Athletic Conference in football or the Mid-American Conference in basketball.

thats crap...were right behide if not equal to the Mount Goat conference as the best nonBCS conf.

Quote:Marshall will continue to excel on the gridiron and Tulsa and Memphis should usually have nice basketball squads. But the other schools offer very little, if anything, in the revenue sports.

all crap...
Football: Marshall, Southern Miss, Memphis, Tulsa, Houston (all went to bowls)...UAB, UTEP, UCF...all have up and coming football teams.

Basketball: Memphis, UAB, UTEP, UCF (all went to NCAA...)...Tulsa will be back in a year or so...USM hires LE...UH hired Penders...in basketball we took a step back...but C-USA still has talent and should send at least 2-3 teams to the NCAA every year.

this guy sounds like he wants C-USA to fail...look i know C-USA isn't the SEC...but it is a viable league...and were gonna be stuck in it at least 3 more years so i promise were gonna make the best of it...and you will find it is far more competitive than most give it credit for.

Go Tigers!!!
Drew

[if the BE football schools split ,our great friend,WVU ,will lobby for ECU,to be part of that new leagueQUOTE]


WVU will vote for ECU as surely as Louisville and UC will vote for Memphis....Pirate fans need to worry about convincing the other 5 schools who will be undecided.


Jackson

[I think Marshall would draw better than Syracuse in Houston in this day and time. At least the program has some glitz from the past few years. QUOTE]


You ever hear of Donovan McNabb or Marvin Harrison....they went to Syracuse not that long ago


Jackson

I'm sorry Big Easters for the TopCoog invasion. I apologize for your having to listen to his usually idiotic rants. Your best bet is to use the "ignore function"! All CUSAers are not quite as looney as the fanatical TopCoog! :wave:

TopCoog Wrote:Most CUSA posters are not as ugly and rude as Gray beard. He is still mad because he made a complete fool out of himself predicting we were going to admit a group of MAC teams.

Yeah, Mr. The decision has been made, it is LaTeck to CUSA!