By
Denny O'Brien
©2010 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
Technically, I guess you
have to consider East Carolina and Central Florida rivals. The two
compete in the same division of the same conference in pursuit of the
same championship and AutoZone Liberty Bowl berth.
They also have the same
long-term competitive aspirations, affiliation in a BCS-AQ conference
with all the riches that accompany it.
You can even make the case
that ECU and UCF fight similar battles with similar schools inside their
own state boundaries. When it comes to media attention and state
funding, neither is atop the pecking order of its respective state.
But that’s where the
similarities end. Because when the two meet between the hashes, the
Pirates thoroughly outman their southern-most Conference USA cousins.
ECU owns an 8-1 series advantage against the Knights.
Ditto for Memphis. Though
the Tigers like to fancy themselves as the cream of the potential Big
East expansion crop, they lose 67% of the time they face the Pirates on
the gridiron. Many of those games have been over before intermission and
have marked record-breaking offensive performances by ECU.
If anything, the football
rivalries between ECU, Memphis and UCF are fought on message boards and
Blogs instead of with play-action passes. Where the Knights and Tigers
often fail on the scoreboard, their fans and media try to pick up the
slack with their keyboards.
So maybe it’s time for
someone from the East Carolina media — someone who has covered almost
every game they’ve played since 2001; someone who has made it a point to
remain neutral; someone who has not been shy about pinpointing ECU’s own
flaws — to take off the gloves and throw a few punches from press row.
If the Big East decides to
expand its football membership, it can’t make the mistake that the ACC
almost made seven years ago. Had the Virginia governor not intervened in
the expansion process, Syracuse — not Virginia Tech — would have gotten
an invitation to join the league.
While the addition of the
Orange might have meant more immediate television revenue, the quality
of the ACC’s football product would have suffered significantly. Instead
of bringing a national power into the fold, it would have added one of
the worst AQ programs to the bottom of a league that simply didn’t need
another doormat.
Though Syracuse would have
brought a bigger market — potentially even New York City — who do you
think provides more long-term TV value? When you factor Virginia Tech’s
track record and nationwide television appeal, suddenly Blacksburg
doesn’t look so small.
So the Big East should
keep the ACC’s near-miss in mind should it decide to up its membership
in football.
Most pigskin pundits agree
that Memphis and UCF are more ripe for the AQ picking, and each one
cites market size and overall potential as the rationale for their
selection. On the surface that might seem like solid reasoning, but a
deeper look would suggest that there are too many unknowns attached to
that type of investment.
Theoretically, UCF
delivers Orlando, but that theory is full of holes. If that were truly
the case, a school of its size in a city of its population wouldn’t
struggle to fill a modest-sized stadium.
Maybe if the Florida
Gators or Mickey and Friends were on the ticket, Brighthouse Networks
Stadium would be full.
With Memphis, the numbers
are even worse. The Tigers lack both the football facilities and the fan
base to fill it up. The announced attendance for Memphis’ home game last
season against East Carolina was a shade under 5,000, a number that was
changed a day later for reasons you probably suspect.
You would think that it’s
difficult to sell a market when most that live within it truthfully
aren’t paying that much attention.
There is no denying that
East Carolina’s market is significantly smaller than both Orlando and
Memphis, and the numbers aren’t even close. But both conference and
television executives should attach an asterisk to those figures when
you consider the number of eyeballs that pay attention to East Carolina
in the Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Tidewater Virginia markets.
When considering the
television potential of any Big East expansion equation, that can’t be
overlooked.
No one here is suggesting
that East Carolina is the second coming of Virginia Tech. Nor is this to
suggest that the Pirates bring a national brand that resonates with
everyone from Kitty Hawk to Pebble Beach.
But ECU sure brings a more
recognizable football identity to the table than either UCF or Memphis.
A comparison of the number of national telecasts including each school,
along with the time slots each is given and the opponents that are
included, should provide proof.
If not, just consider the
track record of the three schools against AQ competition since 2005. ECU
is 6-14, compared to 1-14 for UCF and 0-10 for Memphis according to a
recent report by the St. Petersburg Times.
In the end, you would
think that’s what would drive expansion. For the Big East, a league that
needs to do everything in its power to maintain AQ status, rolling the
dice on a duo that is a combined 1-24 against the caliber of competition
that they would be joining is a pretty big gamble.
If the Big East is
seriously considering expanding in football, ECU is clearly a better
choice than either Memphis or UCF. Though Memphis and Orlando deliver
more television sets than Greenville, the Pirates bring a much tougher
competitive punch.
And before Memphis and
Central Florida fans start firing back about financial backing and
upside, do us all a favor and save the bandwidth. All this discussion of
sugar daddies and potential has never amounted to anything significant
in football.
