Leagual Planner, that is a very well thought out take on what could have been and what might be. Hmm... — Danny Whitford, Editor

I don't understand why many of the schools mentioned in this discussion have been mentioned at all. Some people seem to be throwing names at a wall without considering the AAC's needs or how UConn fit into the conference before deciding to leave. UConn is an Eastern school and played football in the East Division, as well as a full member, so it would not make sense to replace a full member with a football-only member (especially when there is no chance of Army giving up their independence). Any school not in the Eastern Time Zone should be ruled out immediately. The six schools in the AAC West Division are Navy (since Wichita State doesn't have football), Tulsa, SMU, Houston, Tulane, and Memphis. The five remaining teams in the AAC East Division are Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina, USF, and UCF. Any replacement for UConn, in my opinion, should bridge the gap between Cincinnati, Temple, and East Carolina, or go slightly further South to bridge the gap towards the two Florida schools. Such a school should have a decent basketball program, and be in a large or mid-sized media market, as the only AAC member which isn't is East Carolina. In consideration of all that, the top-tier options for the AAC if they don't want to stay at 11/11 should be one of Old Dominion, Georgia State, or UNC Charlotte, as they have the best combination of what the AAC looks for in members. The next-tier options should be Buffalo, UMass, and Coastal Carolina. Schools like Marshall and Appalachian State don't fill the bill because even though they are good at football, they are almost always bad at basketball, and have no media market. James Madison needs to move up to CUSA or the Sun Belt first if they hope to one day join the AAC. The biggest problem the AAC has, however, is that it's a media market conference held together by little other than TV contracts. It's basically four CUSA West escapees (Tulsa, SMU, Houston, Tulane) plus Memphis and the Navy + Wichita State combo ... along with a decent base for an Eastern conference (Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina, USF, UCF) ... but no real similarities or long-term vision between the two sides other than to not get left behind in the race for bigger facilities and TV contracts after being thrown into the same life raft during the expansion madness of 2010. Imagine if, instead of quitting and possibly harming their football program to the point of never being able to join a P5 conference in the event of a future shake-up, such as Notre Dame deciding to go all-in on the ACC, which would then mean they need a 16th member, UConn had done something bold! What if UConn had tried to win the other Eastern schools over to their point of view? Imagine if UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, ECU, Memphis, USF, and UCF had instead decided to form a new East-centric league inviting UMass, JMU, ODU, Charlotte, and Georgia State to get to 12. The dumping of Tulane, Houston, SMU, and Tulsa could then serve as a catalyst to spark the much-discussed CUSA and Sun Belt reorganization. Navy would return to independence in football. Wichita State could seize the initiative to assemble a mostly-Southern non-football conference with teams like Oral Roberts, UALR, New Orleans, TAMU Corpus Christi, UTRGV, UT-Arlington, Dallas Baptist (up from D2), New Mexico State, and Denver. That would get those schools out of football-focused leagues and create a reasonable geographic footprint for their Olympic sports.

...would be interesting to know how many who "have it" are actually sick. (Yes, I can hear it now: "That's not the point!", though I'm not so sure I agree with that sentiment.) The bottom line is that it certainly appears at this point that Pirates Nation football 2020 is a mere pipedream.

if everyone is waiting for THE VIRUS to be gone in order to play any kind of athletics you might as well just close it up for this year. I hope someone can find a solution to this problem.

God will not protect you from a virus

Very good ending to the article..."trust in the Lord."

How-much was the gift? ‍♂️

Ahoy, Doyle! That's certainly an idea worth thinking about. Ron Cherubini, one of Bonesville's founding columnists and a superb writer of both conventional and long form feature stories, authored Pirate Time Machine from 2001-2009 and continued to contribute to the site until 2012. Since then he has focused heavily on his position as a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and executive. ... I will look into the possibilities of resurrecting Pirate Time Machine. ... In the meantime, here is a link to the Pirate Time Machine archives. They are best viewed on a computer screen as they were published before our site was mobile-friendly: https://www.bonesville.net/Articles/RonCherubini/PirateTimeMachine/default.htm Go Pirates! Danny Whitford, Editor

Greg, is there any way of restarting the Pirate's Time Machine as Ron Cherubini did for several years? We'e missing the opportunity to interview past athletes as they are getting older. Thanks for reviewing and advising

I wish you and the team the best coach. Stay safe!

Thank you for publishing this article again. I read it in 2007, but all of us with ECU connections need to be made aware of the efforts of so many on our behalf. My late father in law, R. Frank Everett, from Martin County, and a former State Legislator, and a WWII battlefield commissioned Marine Captain, was a good friend of Leo Jenkins. He, along with many others worked behind the scenes, to enlist support for the nursing and medical schools at ECC. Robert Morgan, also along with many others, was not limited by the height of his body, he overcame what he lacked in stature by the enormous size of his heart. He fought tirelessly along with Jenkins, Futrell, Sanford, Furgurson, and many more for what was right and just. The ECU Brody School of Medicine and the former Pitt Memorial Hospital, currently Vidant, have been a God Send to the people of Eastern North Carolina who otherwise would have to go to Duke or UNC Hospitals for major surgeries and/or other serious medical issues. I agree with Don Tyson that Morgan was a real PIRATE!

Don: I appreciate your comment. Few people younger than about 60 have a grasp of this important history about ECU's fight to serve the region and the state. I can personally attest that the article, in its original print format and in a couple of subsequent online versions, has drawn more interest than any other story we've run in Bonesville's 20-year existence. — Danny Whitford, Editor

Thank you for running this again. It was great to here about the fight to bring the medical school to Greenville !! That's the Spirit of The East and saga of a real PIRATE!

Our starting outfielders are batting between .350 and .400 on a 13-3 team. Yet you want to replace one with a player with 10 AB's? Cliff's on top of it, trust him.

Skylar Brooks has a batting average of .444 ! Could he be a starter in the outfield ?