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It's time to lighten the load

By Brett Friedlander
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

The East Carolina football program takes great pride in its philosophy of playing anyone, anytime, anyplace.

As well it should.

That aggressive approach to scheduling has helped the Pirates claim plenty of high-profile victims over the years, including Miami when it still had its swag, West Virginia when it was ranked among the nation’s top 10, South Carolina of the SEC and most recently, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

More importantly, it has helped ECU build and promote a national brand strong enough to earn entry into the American Athletic Conference – by far the strongest of college football’s so-called “Group of Five” and a major upgrade from its former home in Conference USA.

But because of the more challenging competition associated with that new affiliation and the increased television exposure its ESPN contract affords, perhaps it’s time for the Pirates to think about scaling back their future nonconference schedules.

This is not to say they should go the route of in-state rival N.C. State and put together an embarrassingly weak slate all but guaranteed to produce four wins and insure bowl eligibility. It’s just that – from both a competitive and financial standpoint – it’s no longer necessary to load up on the kind of Murderer’s Row this year’s team is in the process of facing.

Even last year’s veteran unit, led by a third-year starting quarterback and the most prolific pass receiver in FBS history, would have had a hard time holding its own through a gauntlet featuring back-to-back road tests at Florida and Navy, a home date with Virginia Tech and two more road games at Southern Methodist and Brigham Young in the first six weeks of the season.

If there’s really such a thing as too much of a good thing, ECU’s current schedule is it.

So how to make it better?

That all depends.

If athletic director Jeff Compher is holding out hope for another round of conference realignment and a possible move into the Power Five – perhaps as an Eastern travel partner for future opponent West Virginia in the Big 12? – then the maximum exposure gained by the current scheduling format has some merit.

Even if it ends up costing the Pirates bowl eligibility every now and then, as is the very real possibility this season.

A more realistic approach, however, would be to limit ECU to just one national “name-brand” game per season while filling the rest of the nonconference slots with games that could benefit the Pirates in more tangible ways.

Specifically, recruiting.

That’s the reason they’ve already locked up a commitment from Saturday’s opponent, Virginia Tech, to play nine times over the next 10 seasons.

“We hit that area hard and we battle each other, especially in the Virginia Beach area and the Richmond area,” McNeill said earlier this week. “Even when you get into that D.C./Alexandria, Virginia area, it’s really big for us. … It means a lot in a lot of different ways.”

Outside of the Hokies, that one big-time national game and the occasional renewal of rivalries with N.C. State and North Carolina, ECU’s future schedules can easily be completed with opponents such as Wake Forest, Marshall, Old Dominion, Appalachian State and Charlotte – teams capable of providing a challenge without taking too much out of the tank for conference play.

With openings yet to be filled starting in 2018, there are a lot of upcoming decisions to be made.

Whoever Compher and McNeill decide to schedule, this much is certain: No contractual agreements should be signed without requiring at least one return game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. If a high-profile program such as Florida doesn’t want to come to Greenville, or at the very least a nearby neutral site such as Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, then find someone else to play.

The Pirates have long since graduated from the days of having to take “guarantee games.”

That doesn’t mean they should shy away from their philosophy of playing anyone, anytime, anyplace. They should just start doing it a little less often.

Contact Brett Friedlander

PAGE UPDATED 09/24/15 04:38 AM.

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