Out of necessity, East Carolina has on occasion made real progress as an institution or an athletic program through political channels.

ECU had to battle through legislative processes to obtain university status and to establish its medical school. Former chancellor Dr. Leo Jenkins and former state senator Robert Morgan were instrumental in winning those battles in the 1960s.

Morgan, incidentally, is being presented the Distinguished Service Award from the ECU Alumni Association on Friday night.

When former ECU athletic director Mike Hamrick was able to get North Carolina and N.C. State back on the football schedule, it was done in part because of the favorable economic impact those matchups would have on the region, a position reinforced by Marc Basnight of Manteo when he was President pro tem of the North Carolina state senate.

East Carolina needs to focus on becoming a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference through the model that got Virginia Tech into the ACC. It was the political pressure of then-Virginia governor Mark R. Warner that got the Hokies an ACC berth when it appeared that invitation was going to Syracuse.

Some of ECU's high rollers need to sit down with Pat McCrory, who leads current polls in the upcoming North Carolina gubernatorial race, and develop an agreement. The Charlotte-based McCrory would get important backing in the East for the 2012 election with the understanding that he would exert his influence on the ACC's state-supported institutions, North Carolina and N.C. State, to advocate on ECU's behalf for ACC membership.

It is an area where a governor should wield his power because of the significant economic boost ACC membership would provide to a region within the state, specifically Eastern North Carolina.

The ACC would need to expand to 16 teams to include the Pirates but 16 members makes more sense than the league's projected 14 with the anticipated addition of Pitt and Syracuse.

Many ECU supporters as well as those who have ACC allegiances don't think the Pirates will ever be in the ACC. One factor to consider for ACC members outside the state is that five members from North Carolina is 5/16 of the league and does not approach a controlling majority.

That concept had a lot more weight when the ACC consisted of the Big Four in-state teams — Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest — and three to four members outside the state.

As far as the occasionally-heated relations ECU has had with UNC-Chapel Hill and NCSU, some decision makers need to realize that the reason most successful conferences such as the Southeastern and Big Ten work is not because Alabama and Auburn or Michigan and Ohio State like each other. They work because they create a multi-rival framework within which to compete. The power brokers in the ACC need to look at what ECU's fan support would mean for the league and not base decisions on skewed viewing data from television interests.

Pitt and Syracuse don't generate any degree of competitive emotion with the majority of fan bases at ACC schools, unlike the Pirates.

Educators also need to step up and be heard about situations that would mean less travel time — and missed classes — for student-athletes.

The ACC needs to stop peering at ECU through its old spectacles and see the institution that is flourishing in its backyard. Facility improvement at ECU is simply astounding. I haven't seen a better football atmosphere than what a fall Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium produces.

Another possibility

An equitable playoff system within the upper division of college football teams might solve a lot of ECU's concerns with conference affiliation.

Among the 11 conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision, Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West, the Sun Belt Conference and the Western Athletic Conference do not have automatic qualifiers in the Bowl Championship Series.

There is great potential for a playoff involving those five leagues, which currently have limited access to the BCS games and limited financial compensation from the BCS.

If those five leagues would organize an NCAA championship playoff structure with their respective league champions and three at-large teams, the fans would buy it. Do it within the framework of the current second tier bowl system and watch it grow. Its appeal would be that it would be inclusive to any league champion that wanted to participate.

Eventually, and hopefully, the field would expand to 16. Television would buy it and a true champion would be decided on the field.

The big boys' game is locked. It's time to start another game.

The National Invitational Tournament used to be the biggest event in college basketball but the NCAA Tournament has long since surpassed it. There's a potential parallel there in college football.

When traditional avenues for growth and development are closed, decision makers have to think outside the box.

Sports talk host Tim Brando does a countdown on his CBS College Sports TV show called "the BCS, the world in crisis." Wednesday was day 3,191.

"The countdown continues until the Neanderthals, who govern college football, do something about their pathetic postseason," Brando said.

Someone should make him an honorary Pirate.

Lengthy prep for Navy

East Carolina made a statement with its 38-35 win at Navy last Saturday. The Pirates obviously did not define themselves in terms of a 76-35 loss at home to the Midshipmen in 2010.

Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill devoted some extra time to preparation for Navy over an extended period because of the unique challenges of defending the triple option attack.

"I thought Brian (Mitchell, ECU defensive coordinator) and them did a great job, really starting back last spring, in fall camp and even during the year on Sundays we had to look at them," McNeill said. "That's an offense you have to at least introduce your team to so when you face them that week it's not the first time they've seen that responsibility because it stresses you so much with the run game.

"Our offense did a great job not turning the ball over. I thought we played smart as a team. It was good."

ECU quarterback Dominique Davis set NCAA records for consecutive completions (36 over two games and 26 straight in the Navy game). McNeill said some of Davis' earlier struggles this season have resulted to a degree from injuries and inexperience on the offensive line which have affected Davis' protection.

"It wasn't that Dominique had diminished or anything," McNeill said. "According to Coach (Jeff) Connors (director of strength and conditioning), he's worked and gotten stronger. It was just a matter of time of getting that front to block for him and they did a good job."

Ruff familiar with Tulane dynamic

McNeill has some personal experience with the interim head coaching dynamic that Tulane is experiencing since Bob Toledo resigned as Green Wave coach on Oct. 18 following a 44-7 home loss to Texas-El Paso. Tulane made an in-house promotion as Mark Hutson was designated to guide the program through the last half of the 2011 season.

"This is Mark's second stint as an interim coach, once at Eastern Illinois and now at Tulane," said McNeill, who filled in himself in such a capacity for Texas Tech's Alamo Bowl win over Michigan State after Mike Leach was dismissed at the conclusion of the 2009 season. "You have to get your staff on the same page ... and then you have to address the team."

Tulane dropped its homecoming contest with Memphis 33-17 but the final score was deceptive. The Wave led in the third quarter but two subsequent interceptions and a blocked punt led the Tigers' surge to victory.

"Mark was a two-time All-American at Oklahoma as an offensive lineman," McNeill noted. "Tulane's offensive line is well-schooled. Defensively, they're very sound. They play a lot of man coverages but they're great zone and matchup-type zone on the back end. They're very sound on all three sides of the ball. They're a great return team. They may be the best kickoff return team that we've faced. They've gotten big returns on everyone. We have to be on our A-game on our special teams.

" ... We know we'll face a team that will be ready to go. They'll be emotional. Mark has probably already rallied them around a cause. We just have to make sure we're ready to go and to meet the emotion. Playing in Dowdy-Ficklen will help but we have to make sure we execute like we have the last two weeks and go into the game with the same energy and excitement that we had at Memphis and at Navy.

"The kids were excited (Tuesday), realizing that we didn't have to travel on Saturday. We'll be at home and I'm looking forward to walking out in Dowdy-Ficklen again. Our fans who could not make the away games, it's been almost a month since we laid eyes on them and they've laid eyes on us. We're looking forward to it."

Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. and the game has been designated as the homecoming game for 2011. The Pirates are 46-10 in homecoming games since 1955 and have a five-game winning streak on the special occasion.

State Line Power Rankings™

1. Clemson ... Unbeaten Tigers remain kings of the mountain with a well-rounded effort against UNC-Chapel Hill.

2. South Carolina ... A quiet week with an open date and no Stephen Garcia. Too bad he was on hand for the ECU game.

3. North Carolina ... A bashing from Clemson, an NCAA response due Friday and upset-minded Wake coming to town.

4. Wake Forest ... Deacons will have to be more deserving than last week at Duke if they are to prevail Saturday in Chapel Hill.

5. N.C. State ... With a Wolfpack win at Virginia and a Wisconsin loss, the Russell Wilson issue appears to have subsided.

6. East Carolina ... A statement triumph at Navy with incredible numbers from Dominique Davis. Welcome back, Pirates.

7. Duke ... The pieces are there but the Blue Devil program continues to produce puzzling results.