MongoSlade Wrote:I've said some things that 99% of the East Carolina fanbase don't agree with. - I still don't think ECU and the ACC are a good fit
- I don't think ECU and Big East is any better (but I'd be willing to contribute to the cause if she landed there as an all-sports member)
- I really don't like ECU and C-USA are a good fit. Too far spread out with no natural rivalries.
At the end of the day, the school I think ECU best fits with are the ones that currently play I-AA ball -- Appy State and Furman. Not to say ECU needs to drop down, but those are the schools that I think ECU identifies with. We'll always disagree on that, and that's fine. I won't harp on it to the degree I did 2 years ago.
As for my affection with the ACC -- I was an ACC fan before I went to ECU, was an ACC fan while I was at ECU, and continue to be a fan to this day. I disagree with having to take on the Carolina v. ECU political struggles. As far as I'm concerned, Carolina did nothing to hinder me getting a degree so those medical and dental school battles mean nothing to me.
Great men like Leo Jenkins already did the battle with UNC years ago. Fact is we won. We have our medical school and we will have our Dental school. Voters in the East have figured out that ECU plays a vital role in the economy of the entire East. The State Legislature can't ignore the Eastern part of the state or ECU any longer.
I dont worry about the politics because the region will continue to grow as will ECU and it's alumni. We can take care of ourselves and for the most part just need UNC and the Legislature to stay out of our way.
As for your Div1AA argument...almost nobody will ever agree with you on that one. ECU best relates to program like we recently scheduled. None of those schools you mentioned have much in common with ECU. They have small athletic programs with small budgets. Last weeks Marshall game and the 41k+ fans also seperate us from all of those schools. We will continue to grow and the gap will only get bigger between ECU and the Appy ST. Furman, JMU crowd.
At the same time ECU will close the gap with those we are chasing and those we want to affiliate ourselves with. The ACC will never happen but if you could wave a wand we would definitely be even with NCST and UNC overnight in football, would be dead even in baseball if not better fairly quickly and even our basketball would reach a level a decent mediocrity with NIT bids and an occasional NCAA.
Not going to happen but the BigEast might. If not we make our stand in CUSA and make the best of it by scheduling like Terry Holland has done.
If we were to go undefeated in football in the next ten years with our schedule we would be way ahead of the likes of Boise St. for a BCS bid so bottom line is ECU has a lot to play for.
CUSA is a great baseball conference, decent basketball and could be a strong football conference is we get our stuff together.