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News Nuggets, 05.26.04
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NOTES FROM ECU AND BEYOND...

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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Radio network expanded for tournament

In an effort to bolster broadcast coverage on the wider Down East home front, Pirate Radio 1250 will get some reinforcements for the Conference USA Baseball Tournament which begins today in Houston.

In addition to Greenville-based WGHB-AM, also known as Pirate Radio 1250, fans will be able to listen to all of the Pirates' games on stations across eastern North Carolina, according to an announcement from Jeff Charles, East Carolina's director of electronic media.

The games will be carried on WJCV AM 1290 (Jacksonville), WRMT AM 1490 (Rocky Mount), WWGP AM 1050 (Sanford), and WIAM AM 900 (Williamston). Charles will call the play-by-play for each of the Pirates' postseason games, with former ECU head coach Gary Overton serving as the color analyst.

Pirate Radio 1250 carried an extensive selection of games during ECU's march to C-USA's regular season championship.

The top-seeded and nationally 4th-ranked Pirates will begin their quest for the 2004 tournament title against eighth-seeded Louisville this afternoon at 5 p.m. EST. The network's radio coverage is scheduled to begin a 4:40 p.m. EST.

Tune in to the Pirate Radio 1250 live Internet feed.

Bearcats reject ESPN Friday night game

There may be a key variance in the manners by which East Carolina and Cincinnati interpret their schools' respective obligations to Conference USA and the league's national television partner.

Cincinnati athletics director Bob Goin and football Coach Mark Dantonio have jointly agreed to decline an ESPN invitation to move the Bearcats' home game with Texas Christian on October 30 to Friday night, October 29.

Goin said a couple of major issues were behind the decision not to shift the game.

"It is always attractive and tempting to make a move that will place us on the national scene, however, as we build our football to compete in the Big East with a majority of Ohio and Northern Kentucky high school players, we do not want to infringe on their traditional night of football," Goin said.

"High school football is important to a lot of people in Greater Cincinnati and there are some outstanding rivalries being played that night," he added.

Mike Hamrick, East Carolina's athletic director at the time, agreed to move a 2002 Pirates home game with Cincinnati to a Friday night, insisting that ECU had no choice in the matter.

That decision by the controversy-prone Hamrick riled former ECU football coach Steve Logan, who spoke out bluntly and publicly against the decision and was fired the day after that Friday night game was played.

Hamrick's decision to accommodate ESPN on the traditional night for prep football also ignited a major confrontation between ECU and the North Carolina High School Athletics Association. The strain between the two parties did not subside until Hamrick's ECU-assisted departure the following year to become the AD at Nevada-Las Vegas.

Georgia State 'moving on up' to CAA

ATLANTA — Georgia State, a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference longer than any school except Mercer, is moving to the Colonial Athletic Association. Beginning in 2006, the Panthers will begin competing for CAA championships, the school has announced.

East Carolina was a member of the CAA until 2001, when it became an all-sports member of Conference USA.

Georgia State joined the Atlantic Sun, which before 2001 was known as the Trans America Athletic Conference, in 1983. GSU's men have won four of the last six all-sports championships in the A-Sun, and the women have won three of the past six.

"We're going to feel right at home," Georgia State President Carl Patton said, noting the CAA includes other research universities based in major cities along the East Coast.

GSU athletic director Greg Manning said the move will give the Panthers a chance to compete against more familiar schools.

Georgia State, which experienced an unparalleled period of basketball success under former coach Lefty Driesell, owns recent men's basketball wins over Auburn, Tulsa and Georgia, "but nobody wants to play us," Manning said. "I stand up on my desk and scream 'What do we have to do?' "

The answer was to move to a conference with teams rated higher in the Ratings Percentage Index.

"You gain credibility and it helps your recruiting. It allows us to get into more homes," coach Michael Perry said. "Of 31 or 32 leagues in the nation, we have been ranked between No. 19 to 21 in the Atlantic Sun. Now we are going to be between 10 or 12 in the Colonial."

With the addition of Atlanta's Georgia State, the CAA will have a presence in five of the nation's top 25 media markets: New York (Hofstra); Philadelphia (Drexel, Delaware); Washington (George Mason) and Baltimore (Towson).

The Panthers will lose the convenience of bus rides to A-Sun schools like Mercer and Troy State, and the athletic department's travel budget will grow with more flights to Virginia, New York and Delaware, said the school's vice president, Tom Lewis.

The move to the CAA becomes effective July 1, 2006. Georgia State would have to buy its way out of the Atlantic Sun if it were to join the CAA before a two-year waiting period ends.

Georgia State does not field a football team, and the CAA is still looking to add a sixth football school to begin holding a championship in that sport.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2004 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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