East Carolina Football

Conference USA’s East Carolina Pirates will try and snap a four-game losing streak to the ACC’s North Carolina Tar Heels this Saturday in an in-state clash at Kenan Stadium. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. (ET), and the game will be available on ESPN3.

The Pirates fell to 2-1 straight up on the year with a 15-10 loss to Virginia Tech this past Saturday as eight-point underdogs at home. After failing to cover in home victories over Old Dominion and Florida Atlantic, they are 1-2 against the spread. The total has stayed “under” in their last two games.

North Carolina came up short against Georgia Tech in a 28-20 loss as a 6.5-point road underdog this past Saturday. The Tar Heels are now 1-2 both SU and ATS on the year, with the total staying under in all three games. They are 1-0 SU and ATS as a favorite at home.

East Carolina at North Carolina Betting Storylines

East Carolina has really struggled to move the ball on the ground this season with an average of just 63.3 rushing yards a game. However, behind quarterback Shane Carden, they have done a good job moving the ball through the air. He has completed an impressive 82-of-110 attempts for 796 yards and eight touchdown throws. His favorite target has been Justin Hardy, who has compiled 26 receptions for 258 yards and one score. Last Saturday against the Hokies, this passing attack was basically grounded with just 158 total yards. The Pirates had a little more than 200 yards of total offense on the day.

Even though they could not move the ball against Virginia Tech, the Pirates have to feel pretty good about their defense heading into this week’s contest. This unit held the Hokies to 311 yards on the day, and it was especially effective at stopping the run. It will need another big effort from this group on Saturday in its first game this season on the road.

The Tar Heels are another team that likes to throw the ball. They are averaging 111.3 rushing yards a game as compared to 263 yards a game through the air. The big arm behind this aerial attack is Bryn Renner. He has thrown for 751 yards and four touchdowns in his first three games while completing 59.4 percent of his attempts. This past Saturday against the Yellow Jackets, he went 14-for-29 for 218 yards and two touchdowns and one interception. North Carolina actually led that game 20-7 at the half, but it was shutout in the final two quarters of play.

The loss to the Yellow Jackets was a tough day all around for the Tar Heels’ defense. Not only did it blow a sizable lead in the second half, but it was plagued with a rash of injuries including linebacker Quayshawn Nealy and a pair of safeties in Chris Melton and Jamal Golden. Their playing status for this game is still questionable at this time.

 

East Carolina at North Carolina Betting Odds and Trends by 5Dimes

Pointspread: North Carolina -11

Total Line: OFF

The Pirates are 7-0 ATS in their last seven games following a SU loss but just 3-9 ATS in their last 12 games against the ACC. The total has gone “over” in five of their last seven nonconference games.

The Tar Heels are a perfect 6-0 ATS in their last six contests against a team from C-USA. They are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 home games, and the total has gone over in five of their last six games played at home.

Head-to-head in this state rivalry, North Carolina is 5-1 SU and 6-0 ATS in the last six meetings dating back to 2003. The total has stayed under in the last three meetings. The Tar Heels beat the Pirates 27-6 in last year’s game as 15.5-point home favorites. The total stayed under the 63.5-point closing line.

 

College Football Picks: East Carolina at North Carolina Betting Predictions

East Carolina is still one of the better teams in C-USA but is in a bit over its head on the road against the Tar Heels. The average margin of victory in North Carolina’s last four victories in this series has been 18.8 points, and it is not about to let its guard down this week, especially after last Saturday’s collapse against Georgia Tech.

 

Take: #126 North Carolina (-11) over East Carolina (12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28)

All of the movement in the Big East is enough to make your head spin, especially since it was announced today—by multiple sources (h/t Brent McMurphy of ESPN)—that East Carolina and Tulane will both be leaving Conference USA in favor for the Big East.

The Big East made the announcement official on Twitter:

East Carolina has joined the BIG EAST Conference as a Football Member. Pirates begin BE play in 2014. bigeast.org/News/tabid/435…

— Big East Conference (@BigEastConf) November 27, 2012

The addition of East Carolina and Tulane makes up for the loss of Rutgers in the conference, but the question remains: Does the move to the Big East set the Pirates up for failure?

I think so.

There's no doubt that the Pirates have a strong following and loyal fan base—probably more loyal than half of the teams in the NFL—and that the move will bring more notoriety to the school and its football program. But at the end of the day it's about winning football games, and that's not going to be easy for the Pirates in the Big East.

ECU is gaining speed quickly, as you'll see in this Big East Football tweet, but it's still going to be a rough start for the Pirates.

ECU is the 2nd-largest university in North Carolina (28K students) & has been the fastest-growing campus in UNC system for 6 straight years

— BIG EAST Football (@BigEastFB) November 27, 2012

As McMurphy's piece states, teams like Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia are high-tailing it out of the conference. Replacing them will be Boise State, San Diego State, Memphis and UCF, among others. Even with the departures, the Big East is still a lot more competitive than Conference USA.

ECU managed an 8-4 overall record in an average Conference USA in 2012—including 7-1 in the conference—but the Big East is a whole different beast. The teams are better, the games are more competitive and recruiting is a lot deeper.

A team like Boise State can switch over to the Big East and immediately make some noise given their dominance in the Mountain West during the past few years and their propensity to outscore opponents.

The Pirates will struggle.

Since 2005, ECU hasn't won more than nine games in a season, finishing first in the conference just twice. If they can't make it in Conference USA, how will they fare in the Big East?

I'm all for the Pirates moving to the Big East to improve their program and gain a recruiting edge, but unless they can rip Chris Johnson away from the Tennessee Titans and convince the NCAA to adjust his eligibility, it's going to be a while before the Pirates find themselves near the top of the standings in the Big East.

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East Carolina University freshman William Banks, 18, has been arrested after he and a group of accomplices vandalized Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium over the weekend, according to a report from WCTI.

The vandalism comes in the wake of ECU’s 42-35 victory over the University of Alabama at Birmingham this past Saturday.

"It is unacceptable. Unacceptable that someone would do that to our field,” said Head Coach Ruffin McNeil. “You know how I would handle that. To the full extent of the law...the full extent of the law.”

Items damaged include food vendor stands, garbage cans and water fountains.

WNCT reported that Banks also drove a Kubota utility vehicle on Bagwell Field, churning up grass and dirt across the midfield logo within the 30-yard lines.

Students are reacting to the news that the hallowed ground of East Carolina Football has been dishonored.

Damage to the stadium is said to be in the range of $35,000, Yahoo! Sports reports.

ECU’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities is “aware of the case,” said Director Maggie Olszewska.

ECU has a standard procedure for dealing with students that vandalize university property. Banks will have to meet in front of a board that will determine whether or not he violated the university’s Code of Conduct. If it turns out he did violate the code, appropriate sanctions will be handed down.

Eastern North Carolina is a rural region with little coverage in terms of sports. The local demographic is usually fans of Washington or Atlanta-based teams, making the sport of college football an important part of the region’s culture.

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is a vehicle for prideful fans in the region to get their weekly dose of college football.

Attendance for East Carolina football games has been one of the best in the sport over the last decade.

A study by The Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective ranks ECU top in fan attendance in the Conference USA. In 2010, the school averaged 49,665 fans a game, 99.3 percent of their maximum capacity.

This vandalism affects more than just the students; it also affects those in the area who consider Dowdy-Ficklen a cathedral of sports for eastern North Carolina.

While most forms are totally unacceptable, vandalism has a deep history in college sports. It’s become a sanctioned tradition for the ECU-NC State rivalry.

NC State’s Free Expression Tunnel has been doused in purple and repainted red countless times throughout the years. As a sort of acceptable vandalism, the university permits students and visitors to decorate the pedestrian tunnel to show pride in their team and university.

The oldest tradition of vandalism in college football goes back to the days of the Rutgers-Princeton rivalry.

In the late nineteenth century, Rutgers students stole a cannon from Princeton’s campus, sparking the historic rivalry. The cannon was later cemented in the ground to avoid future thefts.

Throughout the rivalry years, the cannon was painted by Rutgers students in an acceptable, but still illegal, form of expressive vandalism.

What happened this weekend in Greenville was not expressive or acceptable, it was immature and hurtful.

Dowdy-Ficklen stadium was renovated in 2009 to include a new student section in the east end-zone. The expansion increased stadium capacity from 40,000 to 50,000 at a cost of upwards of $20 million.

Funding for the renovations, like with most renovations in college football, comes from wealthy donors and alumni who want to give a little (or a lot) back to their alma mater.

Donors for ECU and all across college football put a lot of time, money and pride into their schools. The vandalism that occurred this weekend was unacceptable, enough to bring tears to some students and longtime Pirates supporters.

ECU is set to play Navy on Saturday at 3:30.

Last weekend’s vandalism should have very little affect on the energy of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

I have written a number of very in-depth articles on Big East expansion over the past two years, and as I was working on a Bleacher Report editorial on the current impending shifts in the FBS world, it became apparent it was time for another.  When I started looking at the potential impact of the Big East adding East Carolina University, I was floored by what jumped out to me. As I wrote, the subject quickly demanded its own editorial.

I think you will find after reading this article that it is shockingly obvious at this point that East Carolina should be admitted to the Big East immediately.  In fact, in this changing landscape it is just foolish to keep them out.

I'll make my case.

The are far more reasons to add ECU at this point than to keep them out.  Here are ten of them.

1.) The Big East has a perception problem among eastern fans. Adding western schools SDSU and Boise State opened the Big East up to a lot of ridicule in their footprint, and weakened one of the Big East's best arguments for continued BCS Automatic Qualifier status—having an identity as the conference of the northeast.

Adding Temple and Memphis helped a little.  Adding ECU helps recast the Big East as just what the name implies—a conference with a massive geographic footprint that covers most of the eastern US, encompassing the best of the rest of the non-power conference schools. ECU is the best football draw in the East that is not in a BCS conference. Adding ECU clarifies the BE's new argument for BCS AQ inclusion to fans and the BCS elite and helps the conference reclaim its eastern identity.

2.) ECU basketball is a slumbering giant which could spring to life in the Big East. ECU is smack dab in the middle of basketball country. Given that North Carolina is within the Big East footprint and that many of the basketball programs in the Big East are as good or better than those in the ACC, it is effectively stupid to not have an outpost in that state for basketball recruiting purposes. 

If ECU had a Big East TV payout, they could easily pay a hot local name who coaches a fun style of play—like VCU's Shaka Smart—$2-3 million a year to join ECU in this great basketball conference. That could be the condition of their admission.  In that environment,and under those circumstances, ECU could easily become an annual tourney team.

3.) The member count. By my count, Philadelphia-based Temple will be football member No.12 and Navy will be No.13. Now as part of what appears to be a deal for OKing the addition of Temple, there is a pending, time-sensitive, conditional offer for Philadelphia-based Villanova to upgrade, effectively becoming member No.14.  

Adding ECU immediately would not necessarily impact Villanova getting in. If nothing else, that would help matters by helping create a perception of scarcity of slots and maybe making Villanova boosters and Philadelphia lawmakers feel they might be getting squeezed out of their side-deal for admitting Temple. It could light a fire under Villanova to take that 15th spot. That could in turn light a fire under the Big East's preferred choice, Air Force, to take the 16th slot or lose out to the emerging FBS program at UMASS. Slot scarcity is a great motivator.

4.) TV loves proven, measured fans, not just appealing big markets. While it was very smart to add top 10 markets like Dallas, Houston, and Philadelphia, looking at attendance numbers, it is a fair comment to say that SMU, Houston and Temple have underdeveloped fan bases. At a point, that becomes a bigger issue in TV negotiations.

I think the Big East should not want to enter their TV negotiations without ECU on board.  ECU is very underrated in this regard. They draw very large turnouts (and given sell through rates likely could draw better numbers with a stadium expansion). Their fans may be the most passionate college football fans in North Carolina and may be significantly larger than even their attendance suggests. Their university is in a smaller city, so a large portion of their graduates and local fans relocate to other North Carolina metro areas. This is a school with a legitimate argument to a state-wide following.

TV networks know that schools will bring attention in local DMAs. They like to see schools who can bring attention in additional DMAs. The Big East doesn't have a lot of that.  ECU has done that with regularity in the past. Add that to the fact that North Carolina is a very populous state with several very good DMAs and there are reasons in TV terms to add them. They would help sew the outlying Florida giants into the greater Big East TV offering. There is every reason for me to believe ECU would outperform the average existing BE members in terms of audience delivered. It seems very unlikely that adding ECU is going to negatively impact the TV shares in the Big East.

5.) None of the North Carolina schools in the ACC have become dominant in football. There is a perception that they are all "basketball schools". ECU is perceived to be a "football school". It is entirely possible that at the BCS AQ level, ECU could start taking a far larger share of in-state talent than they are today.  How good would they be then?

6.) What happens if the AQ designation goes away? If there are no status-based affiliations with elite bowls, it comes down to how many schools in your conference can sell enough bowl game tickets to appeal to the big money bowls.  Those associations do a lot to make your argument of peer status to the BCS elites.  How many of the teams of the new Big East can sell 25-45,000 seats to a bowl game?  I count two to three at the most.  ECU would be a much needed fourth.

7.) Where are the bowls? Bowls are a significant revenue stream. Most bowls are located in the sun belt. The Big East has two appealing bowl candidates in Florida who have bowl-level programs that would appeal to Florida bowls, but the rest of the conference is not that appealing to the southeastern bowls. (Boise State is an appealing curiosity to unaffiliated fans as long as they are winning 10-plus games a year, but there is no guarantee they will be able to maintain that standard.) There are a lot of bowls within a reasonable distance (1-3 states) of ECU who would likely pass on today's Big East, who would be more receptive to the Big East if it opened the possibility of ECU every other year (and maybe an occasional appearance by Memphis). Given that ECU, UCF, and USF are all annual bowl teams with large fan bases, the trio would probably guarantee an on-going annual association with three of the bigger money bowls in the region for the new Big East.

8.) It widens the gap between the Big East and the MWC/CUSA. ECU is one of the best draws remaining in the MWC/CUSA and one of their best football teams. Taking ECU out hurts the merged conference's ability to get into the better money of southeastern bowls and hurts the perception of the merged conference by the BCS decision makers.  The merged conference joining the BCS AQ ranks could further diminish the Big East's stature.

9.) It protects the Big East from future raids, creating another appearance of instability at the conference level.  The troubles of the last two years hurt the perception of the Big East as an AQ conference. The threat of raids will always be out there. Having the ability to lose up to two schools (Louisville? Rutgers? UConn?) and still be at 12 football playing members with likely associations with three very good money bowl games is an optimal position for the Big East going forward.

10.) It could help the BCS elite control the potentially destructive emergence of the MWC/CUSA merger on the non-AQ conferences' status quo.  Realignment is a series of domino drops. If you can take a domino off the floor, it can stop a whole bunch of them from falling.  The Big East taking ECU could actually trigger a series of non-moves that could save the Western Athletic conference as an FBS conference. That would actually be a very good thing for the BCS elite. Helping out the guys who run the show never hurts your ability to stay in the show. This final point will be the subject of my next Bleacher Report editorial on realignment—"Should the BCS Elite save the Western Athletic Conference?".

As college football fans, we are divided.

Some of us find excitement in all the reconfiguring of conferences and feel the change of venue for some teams will make for a more interesting football season.

Others will miss the traditional rivalries that are disappearing for at least the near future.

Regardless of which side of the aisle you sit, the change is real, and there is a feeling in the air that we are far from seeing the end of realignment.

The major players in the shuffling of conference arsenals have been the BCS leagues. All six automatic qualifiers have seen some form of change in their lineup.

And really, there isn’t much more to be said in reference to those leagues that hasn't already been said, aside from continued speculation about expansion.

What I have been curious about, however, has been the non-automatic qualifying conferences.

The Mountain West Conference (MWC), the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and Conference USA (CUSA) were all pretty much decimated by other conferences.

Where do they turn after losing so many of their top programs?

That is what I am here to address.

These leagues will never be direct competition with the BCS leagues. They field quality teams and place a few teams here-and-there in the Top 25 rankings, but they will always be the second tier to the “Big Leagues.”

Now before I receive hate mail from East Carolina fans, being second tier is not intended to be an insult.

For the teams in those leagues, the point of the games really is about the play on the field. The teams and fans know that it is unrealistic to dream about national titles, so their games, to a large degree, are more “pure” in essence.

The best option for the remaining conferences is to focus on becoming, or in some cases, remaining a more regional amalgamation, as opposed to attempting the cross-continent conglomeration the Big East has created.

By remaining regional, travel expenses will be reduced, which helps the schools compete better against more national powers. It also develops better rivalries and increases attendance.

So with that said, let us get down to the point of what I am talking about.

First, we shall bid a fond adieu to the Western Athletic Conference, at least as far as football is concerned. Oh WAC, you made a good run of things and you produced some great high-scoring games in the old days.

But, your time has come and gone, and it would be the best for all concerned if you devoted your efforts to basketball. Thanks for playing.

Which brings us to the MWC.

After the losses of Utah, BYU, TCU and San Diego State, they are in dire need of restocking. If losing all those teams wasn't bad enough, the league announced this past week that they are shutting down their cable network.

Things looked so bad that the conference decided to partner with Conference USA for pure survival purposes.

Still, rumors swirled that the MWC was on the verge of adding Utah State and San Jose State. And one cannot forget about the additions this fall of Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii.

The Mountain West may be down, but it is far from out.

And looking at what the MWC has and then adding other regional teams, the conference could easily find its way to 12 full-time members and a strong alliance among member teams.

An updated Mountain West Conference would look something like this:

Note: Teams with an (*) in front of their name are not a current conference member but have been proposed.

The Mountain West Conference

Air Force

Colorado State

Fresno State

Hawaii

Nevada

New Mexico

UNLV

Wyoming

*Idaho (From the WAC)

*New Mexico State (From the WAC)

*San Jose State (From the WAC)

*Utah State (From the WAC)

Since Conference USA is based in Texas, they should focus on teams from the region to rebuild their coffers. Allowing some more eastern-based teams to leave for other options without penalty would serve CUSA well.

A newer version of Conference CUSA could look something like this:

Conference USA

Rice

Southern Miss

Tulane

Tulsa

UTEP

*Arkansas State (From the Sun Belt)

*North Texas (From the Sun Belt)

*UL-Lafayette (From the Sun Belt)

*UL-Monroe (From the Sun Belt)

*Louisiana Tech (From the WAC)

*Texas State (From the WAC)

*UT-San Antonio (From the WAC)

As for the Sun Belt Conference, they would actually come out stronger than before the conference shuffling, and their lineup would be enhanced by the additions of some former CUSA teams.

South Alabama is set to join the football conference in 2012, as they move up from FCS/1AA football.

Other additions that are former FCS programs or that have made public proclamations of their desire to move up to FBS/1A football are Massachusetts (set to join the MAC in 2012) and Appalachian State (looking for a conference to join so they can move up from FCS).

With Navy joining the Big East and Air Force choosing to remain in the MWC, Army could probably be persuaded to join a more manageable lineup of teams like one would see in the new Sun Belt.

The newly configured Sun Belt Conference might look something like this:

Sun Belt Conference

Florida Atlantic

Florida International

Middle Tennessee State

South Alabama

Troy

Western Kentucky

*Army (From Independent Status)

*Appalachian State (From FCS)

*Alabama-Birmingham (From CUSA)

*East Carolina (From CUSA)

*Marshall (From CUSA)

*UMass (From the MAC)

Even after losing Temple to the Big East and UMass to the Sun Belt, the Mid-American Conference would have 12 committed members. That provides for six BCS conferences and four 12-team regional non-automatic qualifying conferences.

More importantly, it creates stability where there has been very little over the last few years. And for college football fans, having an attractive lineup of games is what we all really want in the first place.

 

On Sunday, while interviewing 2012 NFL draft prospect and East Carolina quarterback Dominique Davis, I asked him why scouts should come to his pro day, which will be held at East Carolina University on March 22, the same day as the pro days of the top two quarterbacks in the draft class, Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Baylor’s Robert Griffin III. (On Monday, Baylor announced the date of it pro day was changed to March 21.)

“Because I feel like I have the biggest upside in the draft,” Davis boldly said.

One important asset for NFL success that Davis clearly does not lack is confidence. “I feel like I can be one of the best, not only quarterbacks, but best NFL players," he said.

While Davis may be exaggerating his upside, he does have NFL potential. Davis is 6’3’’, a very good athlete and has a strong arm. The combination of those traits makes him a player worth taking a look at, and he should be impressive in many of the drills at his pro day.

That said, Davis’s collegiate career has been far from ideal. He started out at Boston College and was the starting quarterback for the final four games of his redshirt freshman season. However, Davis was suspended for academic reasons prior to the following seasons and transferred to Fort Scott Community College. After spending a season there, Davis transferred back to the FBS level and played two seasons at East Carolina.

Leading up to the draft, Davis is almost certain to face questions about these trials and tribulations that shaped his collegiate career. Davis said he learned from the experience, realizing that “you have to be mature about the situations and do things the right way, and good things happen to good people when you’re doing good things. That’s what’s been happening to me—ever since that experience, I started doing the right things, started being a good person, and good things happened.”

Davis made his mark with the Pirates over two seasons, but he failed to be consistent. He threw for 3,955 yards and 37 touchdowns in his junior season, but his numbers dropped off in his senior season, throwing for only 3,225 yards and 25 touchdowns, while also throwing 19 interceptions (he threw 17 interceptions as a junior). Davis has the arm to make big downfield throws, but his downfield accuracy and decision-making are inconsistent.

“My talent is very raw,” Davis admitted.

That said, he is confident that if an NFL team drafts him, it will be making a terrific decision. “If there is a team that wants to develop me and mold me into a great quarterback—I feel like if there’s a team that is willing to do that, it’s not only going to make me look good, it’s going to make that coach look great,” Davis said.

Davis was not among the 326 players invited to this year’s NFL scouting combine. “Of course I feel like I should have gotten an invite, but there is nothing I can do about it now, and I just use that as motivation to just work hard and make sure the guys who didn’t invite me look down the road and feel like they made a mistake,” Davis said.

Davis did accept an invitation to participate in the Players All-Star Classic earlier this month. He said of his week in Little Rock, Ark.: “The experience was great. I was just there trying to take advantage of my opportunity and show the scouts what I can do. I got better every day during the practice week and it showed in the game.”

Davis is now focused on preparing for his upcoming pro day. Davis explained his preparation, saying “I have been working hard every day and throwing the ball and lifting and getting stronger and faster, to try to wow these scouts come my pro day.”

Asked if he could play for any team, Davis said it was a “great question”, and contemplated the question for awhile, but said that “it really wouldn’t matter what team, I would play on any team that’s out there.”

Whether Davis is selected in the 2012 NFL draft or signed as an undrafted free agent, one of the 32 NFL teams will be bringing in a confident individual who has set the bar high for himself with his expectations. He seems to have also learned valuable lessons and made a significant character transformation since his freshman year at Boston College.

Thanks for reading!

This is the second of five articles featuring exclusive interviews with NFL draft prospects that I conducted last weekend. Keep checking back all week for more!

Monday: Louisiana-Lafayette TE Ladarius Green

For more coverage of the 2012 NFL Draft, follow me on Twitter @Dan_Hope.

Does the Southeastern Conference want a piece of the North Carolina television market?  If it does, East Carolina University is ready a willing to offer up its viewership to support the cause.  

In a recent interview with the Barnhardt and Durham Show on Atlanta's 790 The Zone, ECU's Athletics Director Terry Holland made it no secret that the Pirates are ready for the big time.   

“Our great hope, someday, would be to be the SEC representative in the state of North Carolina," Holland told Tony Barnhardt.  He later added that “If Mike Slive needs an extra team, he knows we’re here.”

These statements come after the University's recently evaporated hopes of joining the troubled Big East and as ECU's current home, Conference USA, works on a probable merger with the Mountain West.  

Hindsight apparently has given Holland some relief over his program's Big East snub.  “When I look at the current Big East structure, I have to admit, it has become more of a problem from a travel standpoint etc., than the conference we’re in currently," Terry said.  "So while we’re disappointed with some of the decisions that the Big East has made, at this time we’re saying, well, for the long term, if you don’t share our values, then maybe we’re better off where we are."

East Carolina has become one of the more successful non-BCS programs in terms of attendance and regional support with an average home attendance this past season of over 50,000, which is even against a considerable number of automatic qualifying football programs.  

Even with a considerable level of success, Terry thinks that ECU could flourish under the right circumstances.  "The most tickets we’ve ever sold to a visiting team were in Conference-USA, because the distance involved has been 400," explained Holland.  "If we were in a conference where we had some regional rivals, there’s no telling what our attendance could be and we would certainly expand our stadium again."

Though a spot in the SEC is a bit of a long shot, ECU's stock is certainly up at the moment as a regional up-and-comer and could gain more of a national reputation by maintaining a competitive television market presence and home attendance numbers.  Those two factors bring in money, and after all, isn't that the only real factor that ultimately makes the decisions in college football? 

Who needs an actual bowl game when your college football team can just make one up?

That's what the folks at East Carolina have in mind. According to Deadspin, the Pirates are raising money for a new basketball facility by selling $50 tickets to the "Virtual Bowl," which, in this day and age of ever more convoluted bowl games, isn't a real event.

It's a bit cheesy, to be sure, but you can hardly fault the Pirate Club for its creativity in trying to simultaneously drum up school spirit and raise funds to benefit its athletic department:

East Carolina University Athletics wants to show the college football world the passion of the Pirate Nation, even in a "bowless" year for the university. The Pirate Club is excited to announce the 2011 Virtual Bowl. Our challenge will be to sell more tickets than our bowl-bound Conference USA opponents and bowl-bound teams from the Big East.

And what's not to like about calling out other teams and conferences? Granted, selling more tickets isn't that big of a blow to the pride of the other schools, seeing as how they're distributed on consignment, meaning the bowl games themselves retain ownership of the tickets until they're sold.

Not to mention that ECU fans don't have to concern themselves with traveling to and finding lodging in the far-flung corners of America just to see Dominique Davis and company play some pigskin one last time before the new year.

Still, props to ECU for thinking outside the box in its fundraising efforts and for poking fun at the watered-down nature of the bowl season in general.

Who knows? With the BCS seemingly always in flux, especially after the controversy emanating from the 2011 season, perhaps the powers that be will look to the Virtual Bowl as an alternative to coaches' polls and byzantine formulas.

Follow @J0shMart1n 

The ECU Pirates are a very proud football program.  While all of the other schools in North Carolina long for basketball season, ECU is first and foremost a football school, with basketball little more than an afterthought. 

The Pirates fan base is loyal and loud in supporting their team.  ECU averages close to 50,000 in attendance for their home games, placing them second in attendance among non-AQ teams. (Only BYU averages more, and BYU isn't even really a fair comparison, as they are usually close to the top 25 in attendance.) 

Even when the team isn't doing so great, the fans still show up, as evidenced by the fact that over 50,000 were in the stands earlier this season to watch an 0-2 Pirates squad take on lowly UAB.

However, the team did not reward the fans' faith in them this season, finishing 5-7 and failing to become bowl-eligible.

In his two seasons as head coach of the Pirates, Ruffin McNeill has managed only an 11-14 record.  At many non-AQ schools, that would be acceptable for a new coach's first two seasons.

ECU is not like most non-AQ schools, however.  Pirate Football is much more similar to AQ schools than it is non-AQ schools in terms of quality and expectations. 

Prior to McNeill's arrival in Greenville, the Pirates had spent their previous four seasons winning the Conference USA title twice, and finishing as the runners-up twice. 

The Pirates had also managed to pull off some major upsets, defeating highly-ranked West Virginia and Virginia Tech teams, as well as winning the Hawaii Bowl over Boise State, who was only one season removed from their legendary Fiesta Bowl victory.

Those days seem like a distant memory for Pirates fans, as the team currently wallows in mediocrity.  ECU football isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they aren't real great either.  Decent just doesn't cut it at ECU.

Which is why Coach McNeill's job isn't completely safe right now.  The school has to determine if McNeill can once again make the Pirates "great," or if "decent" results are all he can produce.

It's a tricky question, and one that doesn't really have a clear answer.

It's not as if McNeill is a bad fit for the program or just doesn't understand ECU football—he is an ECU man through and through and played on the football team there back in the '70s.  He knows full well what the program is capable of and what the expectations for him are.

However, it is questionable as to whether or not McNeill can get those results that he is aiming for.  Despite having the incredibly talented Dominique Davis as his quarterback, McNeill has been unable to consistently put wins on the stat sheet. 

It is rare that a player of Davis' talents and abilities winds up at a non-AQ school (with BYU once again being the main exception here).  If McNeill couldn't find consistent success with a team led by someone as good as Dominique Davis, how is he going to make winners out of players with less talent?

While defense has often been the culprit in the Pirates' losses over the last two seasons, the offense has still had its fair share of issues.  Earlier this season, the ECU defense managed to hold the stellar Virginia Tech offense to only 17 points, yet the Pirates still lost because the offense mustered only 10 points.

That sort of inconsistency is exactly why Ruffin McNeill may not be guaranteed a third season as head coach of the ECU Pirates.