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SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
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Pirate Notebook No. 296
Monday, January 29, 2007
By Denny O'Brien |
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Midweek games don't fit ECU
By Denny O'Brien
©2007 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
Conference USA will release its league
football schedule sometime soon. While all of the opponents and some of the
dates already are set for East Carolina, one burning question remains:
Will ESPN hold the Pirates and their fans
hostage in 2007?
If the Worldwide Leader has designs of
exiling ECU to Tuesday or Wednesday night, the answer is a resounding yes.
And if a midweek date (Thursday excluded) is scheduled at home, ECU's ticket
sales could prove too low to pay the ransom.
The latter has to be the bigger concern in
the East Carolina camp. Because you can bet your Pirate Club points that
ECU's attendance numbers will take a significant dive if Dowdy-Ficklen
becomes a midweek stage for an ESPN game.
Nothing short of a marketing miracle or Top
10 opponent would draw 40,000 in that scenario. With a heavy load of ECU's
fan base well outside of a two-hour radius, it's just unrealistic to expect
a respectable crowd for a 7:30 start on Humpday.
The Pirates struggle enough as is to draw
impressive fan showings for C-USA contests. Save for last season against
Memphis and Marshall, league games have never held the same priority as ones
against regional foes.
More than anything, this scenario is a
commentary on how East Carolina's football mission doesn't match C-USA's. An
overwhelming majority of the league's schools are starved for national
attention and are hardly a ticket office draw, neither of which apply to
ECU.
Where a Tuesday night ESPN game might
appeal to Rice or Tulsa, a non-televised Saturday game is more desirable in
Greenville. If it was Tuesday, Wednesday, or nothing for ECU, the Pirates
would be better served with no TV appearances in the very near future.
The East Carolina program — which has
important credentials other than TV — is hardly the tough sell to its
recruiting base like most C-USA programs. And unlike all but one of its
league brethren, ECU should hear the term sellout on a fairly frequent basis
moving forward.
Thanks to the schedules AD Terry Holland
has pieced together, East Carolina now has the momentum to exceed season
ticket records on a semi-annual basis. Nothing short of midweek match-ups
could hinder that.
All this lends to question Holland's
position if ESPN and C-USA propose a midweek date. The initial reaction
might be to deny such a request, but at second look it might not be as
simple.
Doing so could generate friction between
ECU and the C-USA office, the type that might hurt the Pirates when the
league negotiates with bowl officials on team placement. Even worse, it
could paint the Pirates unfavorably in the eyes of the Big East.
But maybe not.
What's for certain is the insult midweek
games have become for fan-starved schools that crave any exposure they can
get. It has become a showcase for football misfits.
At this stage, ECU needs no part of that
image.
Allison stock up
Aundrae Allison raised his value for the
upcoming NFL draft with a standout performance during practice sessions for
last Saturday's Senior Bowl.
After a disappointing effort in his ECU
finale at the PapaJohns.com Bowl, he surely needed it.
No doubt the most gifted receiver in East
Carolina history, the knock against Allison this season has been that he
occasionally takes plays off. That theory is backed by his 0-for performance
against UAB and again by a lackluster effort against South Florida.
But Allison's propensity for the
spectacular should weigh heavier in the war room come draft day. For every
drop and half-speed route, there are the circus catches against N.C. State
and Memphis and his ability to separate from defenders.
On draft day, potential typically outshines
the past.
In-state resurgence
National Signing Day is nine days away, but
it already is apparent that Skip Holtz has been able to leverage the
Pirates' success on the recruiting front.
ECU is expected to sign 25 next Wednesday
in what has the potential to be the best class in school history. As of
Saturday, the Pirates'
commitment list ranked No. 39 in the
nation by ESPN.com, which bases its rankings on player grades issued by
Scouts, Inc.
If ECU inks all of its commitments, it will
prove one overcooked theory wrong. Many believed that focusing most of the
Pirates' efforts on in-state recruits would backfire, but Holtz is showing
otherwise.
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02/23/2007 02:05:26 AM |
