Eric Hyman apparently has a philosophy similar to that of his counterpart at East Carolina, Terry Holland, when it comes to non-conference football scheduling.

The State newspaper of Columbia, SC, has reported that Hyman, South Carolina's athletic director, has identified ECU as the type of school the Gamecocks should be playing in its non-Southeastern Conference games.

“I like to play regional games,” Hyman told the paper. “Our fans can travel to it. It makes sense.”

Holland has cited similar rationale in filling much of the non-Conference USA portion of the Pirates' future schedules with opponents located within driving distance of Greenville.

Since assuming command of ECU's athletic department in 2004, Holland has locked in or extended home-and-home series with Navy, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, North Carolina and N.C. State.

A series between the Gamecocks and Pirates would be in keeping with that scheduling philosophy, but Hyman indicated to The State that such an arrangement would be for games several years into the future. South Carolina already has home-and-home series slated with North Carolina (2007 and 2010) and N.C. State (2008 and ’09).

ECU and USC could potentially play at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, noted Hyman, who indicated such a matchup would not be in lieu of a game in Williams-Bryce Stadium.

“I really don’t want to take a home game away from Columbia,” he said. “A home game in Columbia is an economic driver for this community.”

East Carolina and South Carolina are not strangers on the gridiron. The programs first collided in 1977, with the Gamecocks claiming a 19-16 victory.

After a hiatus of several years, the schools launched a 14-game series that ran from 1984 through 1999. USC handily won all seven games that were played through 1990, but the Pirates turned the tables starting in 1991, winning five of the remaining seven meetings.

Skip Holtz, East Carolina's head coach, was in the first year of a six-year stint on the Gamecock staff of his father, Lou Holtz, when the Pirates claimed a 21-3 victory in 1999 that ended the series.

Former Duke, Florida and Washington Redskins coach Steve Spurrier succeeded Lou Holtz at the helm of the USC program after the 2004 season. Skip Holtz was subsequently hired by Holland to resurrect ECU's football fortunes, which had plummeted during the two-year regime of John Thompson.