If there’s one school that really needs the AAC is East Carolina.

As an outsider, the way I view ECU is similar to the way I see Southern Miss. They were the first choice if the SEC, ACC and Big East schools didn’t recruit you. Now there’s plenty of nearby schools that sponsor FBS football. Old Dominion is now getting deals that ECU used to get like the long term series with Virginia Tech. If you’re West Virginia, you rather play Charlotte or ODU. They’re in bigger cities and offer more recruiting opportunities than playing in Greenville. Or even better play the U_F twins for Florida exposure.

ECU’s dream of going to a power conference ended when the Big East got demoted in late 2012 from BCS AQ to G5 in the new CFP era that started in 2014. It was Big East or bust for the Pirates since the 1990’s. No other power conference was going to invite them. Not the ACC. Not the SEC. They were more or less at a similar level with other independents before the Alliance and BCS era. Now most of those schools like South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Louisville, West Virginia, Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse are now in a power conference. To make things worse, newcomers like Boise State and UCF are having the success that ECU was supposed to have. Those BCS and NY6 bowls were supposed to have the Pirates in it not a school that used to be a community college in the Rockies or a school that once was in the MAC/A-Sun.

At least Southern Miss can still aspire to AAC membership. ECU? The AAC is their last stop unless something really bad happens to the ACC (very unlikely).