Great back-and-forth contest, which showed both strength and weakness by both teams. Both teams can manufacture runs, and both teams are in serious need of a more mature bull pen. Too bad this series had to be played early in the year. I’m betting both teams will be better off 30-45 days from now - and all these guys aren’t even the “cream” of the state teams. Baseball is alive and well in NC, so far, this year.

Greg, Is the revised CFP playoff format good or bad for the AAC/ECU? Thanks, Tim Slavin

Is the updated playoff good or bad for the AAC/ECU? College Football Playoff approves 5+7 format and reduces spots for conference champions

Thanks, Sammy Super report !

I’m betting Signing Day at many schools looked a lot like ECU’s did - a shamble of its former glory. What a damning testimony against the NCAA. How many of the schools currently labeled as “FBS” can afford to invest recruitment dollars and time on high school recruits, going forward. A recently run Dr Pepper commercial pokes some fun at the chaos created by the transfer portal. Sadly, it’s almost as truthful as it is tongue-and-cheek.

I'm in favor of relegation in college football. The brick and mortar arms race is even sillier than I originally thought.

We really should hope that happens, because the AAC has become significantly degraded on a net basis. All four of the universities that left were really the cornerstones of the conference in its prior form. Except arguably for UTSA (given its aggressive, resourced ambition) and Rice and Army (given their tradition and academic cred), all of the incoming programs were a downgrade to the AAC. Absolutely the "have nots" of a collapsed ACC represent a collection of programs that are superior to the AAC, but unless Coach Houston can truly turn ECU around, why would they be interested in ECU as a member of a new conference? There are other programs in the region today (e.g., App State and Liberty) that could be looking to move up, and would probably be more attractive than ECU, and even more candidate programs outside of the region. Coach gets paid very well; let's hope the results on the field begin to be commensurate.

The toothpaste ain’t going back into the tube. The NCAA isn’t interested in fixing anything, because they don’t know how. Survival is their mission. The creation of two, maybe three Super Conferences for football seems likely. Those conferences won’t need “leadership” from the NCAA, but you can bet the NCAA will fight like hell to keep hold of the reins. As for the “others”, the first question is, do they have any affiliation with the the Biggies - in any sport. Whatever happens, I hope this destroys the leadership of the NCAA. If nothing changes there, then the also-rans should run away from the NCAA, form their own leadership cadre, and move forward. Daunting, yes it is - but doable and necessary.

Great article! I am watching the ACC very closely and I think it is eventually going to collapse with some teams (UNC, Miami, Florida State, etc.) going either to the SEC or Big 10. I think the rest of the teams will join together and ECU will have an opportunity to join that league.

Without a doubt it is for the worse. Coaches should not be one of the highest paid people in the entire state. How many companies have employees make more than the people they report to. Student athletes should at most get paid around what they would make if they worked a part time job like other non athletes. College athletes should go to schools they want to play for not to schools that pay the most.

I remember my freshman year at ECU, we were paying Pat Dye $24,000 per year to coach our football team. It's incredible what the financial picture of college athletics has evolved in that time period. For better or worse?

Kudos to the Pirates’ head coach for addressing staff needs, and to the entire staff for making the effort to upgrade the talent level in the locker room. Thanks to the NCAA’s lack of leadership, college sports has become a casino where players can spin the roulette wheel and land almost anywhere they want, for any reason they have. Legitimate concerns over playing time are one thing, but using a one year enrollment at a mid-level FBS school as an audition for more lucrative NIL offers is quite another. The NCAA has turned many athletes into gunslingers who troll for the bigger payday. I don’t blame the players for the mismanagement resulting in the current toxic stew called recruitment. So here’s hoping ECU can navigate the shoals and obstacles put before it. To do this, the days of recruiting promising high school student-athletes and growing them up, “in the system”, may be rapidly coming to an end, or sadly, diminished. I hope I’m wrong. However, the current recruiting environment may force schools to invest available scholarship dollars in the transfer portal.

ECU has always had to do more with less. What if we just do better? Coach better, recruit better, and be bolder. No excuses. Every school is facing the same transfer portal. If Liberty can have a respectable program in this environment, and Duke and Wake Forest are competitive. Why the woe-is-me attitude in Greenville?

It's hard to know who was behind the new transfer portal program that waives the one year sit out rule. The transfer portal will do to college football what the NBA did to college basketball. The complaint from fans, even fans of the Power five is you never get to know who the players are because they gone after one year. It hard to see who wins but easy to see who loses. My fear is the death of small college football. With the new NCAA / ESPN contract, there is no going back.

On a good day, the present system is a crap shoot. ECU cannot, at present, compete on a grand scale in the present system. I doubt whether that will ever be possible. The NCAA has reduced the major sports of college athletics to a pay-for-play collection of college casinos. It’s not hard to tell the “top shelf” establishments from those who struggle to afford the permits. The mid-majors, like ECU, should break away completely from the NCAA and form a new organization. I know this will not happen, but it would be nice to see the NCAA have to scramble for its big contracts when the majority of members become competitors. March Madness would take the hit first. Football would soon follow. I’m betting the Power Five would soon realize the NCAA had been transformed from “all powerful “ to “all useless”, and jettison the org soon after. Al, you gave us a great article. Rather bleak, but it is the truth. With football having so many players and personnel involved, one can only hope the Pirate Ship can stay afloat.