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Easley makes delayed pitch for Pirates
Bonesville.net Staff Report
After declining to assist East Carolina in its effort to gain consideration
for Atlantic Coast Conference membership when that league was adding
schools, North Carolina governor Michael Easley (D) has made a belated
gesture on behalf of the Pirates' push to gain a spot in the Big East.
In a letter sent to Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese earlier this week,
Easley touted ECU's positive academic profile, its rich tradition in
athletics and its modern athletics facilities. He made particular note of
the Pirates' supportive fan base.
ECU, which in early August enlisted the consulting services of former
Southeastern Conference commissioner Roy Kramer to assist in upgrading the
school's conference affiliation, has for some time been lobbying behind the
scenes to line up a membership in a league with a direct tie-in to the Bowl
Championship Series or whatever subsequent arrangement emerges to determine
a national football champion.
Until now, ECU had received no visible support from the governor in its
efforts to achieve that objective. That is in striking contrast to the
intense campaign by Virginia governor Mark Warner to aid Virginia Tech in
its uphill but successful campaign to gain admittance to the ACC — a
contrast that has been a sore subject in many quarters east of I-95.
When he was commissioner of the SEC, Kramer was the driving force behind
putting together the BCS, a cartel involving six of the nation's 11 Division
I-A football leagues, ABC Television and a limited number of lucrative bowl
games.
Because of the economic and geographical advantages that would accompany
membership in the Big East and the potential for building natural rivalries
with other Eastern schools such as Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Rutgers,
Syracuse and West Virginia, that league has been the object of ECU's pursuit
of a new home since the Pirates' overtures to the ACC were brushed off.
ECU is a member of Conference USA, which spans half of the continental U.S.
and which appears headed towards an even more westerly configuration with
the anticipated losses of Cincinnati and Louisville to the Big East and the
addition of current Western Athletic Conference members Rice, Southern
Methodist and Tulsa.
At the present time, the Big East remains one of six conferences with
guaranteed access to a BCS bowl each year. However, that status for the
league may be in jeopardy with the announced defections of football
linchpins Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech to the ACC.
Regardless of questions about the the future of the Big East's relationship
with the BCS, it has
been no secret that ECU has continued to lobby for a spot in the league.
The Big East, which has been staggered with the announced defections of the
Eagles, Hokies and Hurricanes, has for weeks been actively deliberating its
future configuration and pondering new members to shore up its decimated
football alignment.
Easley has been harshly criticized among some segments of ECU's constituency for his
indifference to the school's aspirations to achieve more desirable
conference affiliation.
Easley's letter to Tranghese comes less than two weeks before what is
expected to be a climactic Big East meeting on Nov. 4 in which that league's
leaders will decide which schools will be formally issued invitations to
fill the vacancies created by the departures of BC, Miami and VPI.
Florida newspapers have reported in recent days that another of C-USA's most
eastward schools, South Florida, is poised to join the Cardinals and
Bearcats in moving to the Big East. The spot the Bulls would fill is the one
the Pirates have been pursuing in earnest.
ECU, Central Florida, Army and Navy have been mentioned in some media
accounts as possible candidates for football-only bids to join the Big East.
Nick Floyd, the Pirates' interim director of athletics, indicated in a
recent Bonesville.net interview that ECU would be reluctant to embrace an
invitation that did not encompass all sports.
Sources close to the ongoing deliberations say it is not clear that USF
— or for that matter, Cincinnati — has the necessary votes to squeeze ECU
out of
the Big East's pending reformulation.
02.23.07 11:20 AM
©2003 Bonesville.net. All rights reserved.
This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bonesville.net staff
member Danny Whitford contributed to this report.
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