ECU sports Q&A with CUSA-fans correspondent Bubba Rosenbaum

CUSA-fans.com has a new staff of team correspondents this fall to help bring you, the fan, more detailed Conference USA football coverage. Today, our East Carolina Correspondent Thoms "Bubba" Rosenbaum answers your e-mails in his ECU sports Q&A. You can contact Bubba with your questions about ECU sports at TBRosenbaum @ cusa-fans.com.

John Bowman

Hampton, VA

Q: What is the status of ECU pulling away from C-USA and becoming a member in say, the Big East, which is more regionally attractive for the PIRATES? This conference now is more of a South/Mid Western region.  ECU has no regional rivalries at all.  I believe the closest school is Memphis, and that is some 16 hours away.  This was a great, well good conference to absorb us when we were an Independent, but now it is time to move on.  Are the super conferences going to force C-USA to dwindle and have those teams go to the big boys?

A: Right now, everything appears to be “status quo” on the conference realignment and expansion front. In fact, East Carolina Director of Athletics Terry Holland said this much during a recent radio interview. He stated that the Big East would not be looking to expand until absolutely necessary. With their current eight members, they are doing a fine job of proving their worth for retaining their BCS slot. You have West Virginia and Louisville in the top five, while Rutgers is also ranked in the top 25 polls after getting off to a 5-0 start.

The ACC and Big East reshuffling had domino effects on the Big East and Conference USA, respectively. The Big East won’t want to make such a move again until they feel they have no alternative. When/If it does happen, you’ll likely see them go with a ninth football only member OR opt to go to a 12-team conference. If they chose the latter, the twelve football playing institutions would likely breakaway from the non-football playing members.

In the meantime, the Pirates must take care of their own business. Obviously the best thing that East Carolina can do to improve its situation is win. In addition to that, Pirate fans must step up to the plate and pack Dowdy-Ficklen on a consistent basis. They must also consistently buy 20-25,000 season tickets. ECU sold around 17,000 or so this year. This is vital for increasing the demand and creating the need for people to buy season tickets if they want to ensure that they have tickets for games.

Your assessment of the Pirates’ current situation in CUSA is pretty accurate. It doesn’t take an accountant to figure out that the league takes a hit on East Carolina financially. This is due to a few different factors. Number one, CUSA’s members are so spread out that travel costs are through the roof. Secondly, not being proximately located to any of your fellow conference schools means decreased attendance at games due to smaller visiting crowds. Finally, the opponents aren’t regional rivalries for East Carolina, which means smaller crowds when you’re considering your “on the fence” fans.

ECU’s closest “rivalry”, if you will, is with Marshall and the two schools are approximately 450 miles and seven hours apart. The Pirates have played Memphis and Southern Miss several times through the years, but those schools are 833 and 864 miles away, respectively.

Terry Holland recognized this and has made up for the Pirates lack of regional rivalries in conference play by scheduling essentially nothing but regional rivalries in the non-conference slate. He locked up a long-term scheduling deal where the Pirates will be playing multiple games against Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Virginia, Navy, North Carolina and North Carolina State over the next several years.

This excellent non-conference slate offers the Pirates’ program and fans an opportunity to see their team compete against quality programs from their region. Also, most of those six opponents travel well, which means they will bring a few thousand fans to games at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Conversely, ECU fans will also have more practical chances to watch their Pirates away from Greenville.