Football Dates Trickling (Updated 1/20 9pm)

'07 Football General57

September 1: Central Florida @ NC State

The Tom O’Brien era at NC State will open against George O’Leary’s University of Central Florida Golden Knights on September 1, 2007.

Click here for a link to UCF’s announcement and click here for some related comments from the N&O’s ACCNow blog.

In addition to the Golden Knights, NC State is slated to host Wofford and Louisville in 2007; Louisville is rumored to be a September 29th game. The Wolfpack will also travel to Greenville to play East Carolina because Lee Fowler is a big p*$$y and won’t say no to people that he believes can help/hurt his potential future professional advancement.

This link will take you to more information about NC State’s future non-conference football schedule.

Updated: 1/20 @ 9m

September 8: NC State @ ECU

State is set for a trip to ECU. Highlighted in this entry at the N&O

North Carolina and N.C. State, for the first time in a single season, will go to East Carolina for football games in the 2007 season.

In what is certain to be a boost for ECU season ticket sales, the Pirates are scheduled to host the Wolfpack on Sept. 8 and the Tar Heels on Oct. 20.

There is a slight possibility that both games dates could change, officials at NCSU and UNC are relatively certain that the dates are solid.

September 15: Wofford @ NC State

'07 Football General

57 Responses to Football Dates Trickling (Updated 1/20 9pm)

  1. dj9686 01/18/2007 at 5:27 PM #

    PS-also, SFN, if you’ve got to play so many road games a season, what could be cheaper than playing one in NC and against a Div. 1 team or whatever it’s called these days that will qualify you for a road game. And as much as I dislike Lee Fowler, isn’t this a legislative thing that we’ve been forced into? UNC and Duke have had to play there because of this mandate.

    SFN: We’d love to see the NCAA rule mandating the number of road games per season that a team “has” to play. Please refer us to that rule. Thanks!

  2. BJD95 01/18/2007 at 5:58 PM #

    Hell, I’d at least ENJOY a trip to Boone to play at App State.

  3. CaptainCraptacular 01/18/2007 at 7:51 PM #

    *I wanted O’Leary to replace Amato and was surprised his name was never mentioned. I hope TOB will prove me wrong.*

    I believe O’Leary has a pretty significant buyout at UCF. Could be wrong, but being in Orlando I thought I had heard that in the local sports news. This is in addition to his non-success without Fridge.

  4. BorntoHowl 01/18/2007 at 9:52 PM #

    Why don’t we just go down to EZU and put up triple digits on the scoreboard. Then we should put some great big pretty red bows on their goal posts instead of tearing them down. Headlines across the stae on Sunday morning should describe the largest victory margin in NC college football history That should end their desire to extend the series and all this discussion would be moot.

  5. jwrenn29 01/18/2007 at 10:52 PM #

    Trout: I-AA=pushover. We lost 7 (yes 7!) straight games to end the year and yet beat the #1 I-AA team in the season opener. If Wofford is even close, TOB is already in trouble.

  6. packman12 01/18/2007 at 11:00 PM #

    Even former coach Mike O’Cain got it. Nobody outside of those in Raleigh and Greenville care anything about state-ecu. It’s defnitely not a money game because nobody will televise it, unless its the local station in Greenville. To make matters worse, any year you win that game its only a game you’re supposed to win. Lose, and its a huge upset. How do the players get ready for a game like this? Some fans may like it, but think about the guys on the field. This series has to end Mr. Fowler.

  7. Astral Rain 01/19/2007 at 12:04 AM #

    We can’t change the schedule- best we can do is run up the score to they don’t want to play us again. Too bad TOB is too classy to do that. However, honestly- ECU, while boring, is a legit opponent next year, and if they get better- the game does mean more. So hopefully they’re 10-1 when we head down there. Unsure how realistic that is.

    I’ll admit, it isn’t the Marquee of an Ohio St. but it is better then picking some random other school like Akron or So.Miss.

    I’d say for the NC
    1 Gimme I-AA game
    1 Low Major gimme game/UCF
    1 Mid Major like ECU (should get a 2 for 1 here)
    1 High Major like Louisville (home ahd home)

  8. Gene 01/19/2007 at 1:50 AM #

    ECU – NCSU is a bit of local rivalry, for whatever reason. The all-time series isn’t lopsided to0 one team or the other, in recent years. Either stop playing them all together, or deal with the reality that they’d want a game on their home turf, too. In reality we’re giving ECU a lot of local attention, when we play them, either in Raliegh or Greenville, within the state, which gets them to share the same spotlight as ACC schools. Not a good proposition, when ever we play them, so either drop the series or quit whining about playing in Greenville. Or only play at neutral sites.

  9. Sw0rdf1sh 01/19/2007 at 8:21 AM #

    I’m sorry for saying this, but I’ll just get it out.

    I actually look forward to taking our fan base to Greenville, saturating their parking lots and stadium with Red, drinking their beer and bbq pork, and then rubbing in their faces like it was done to me this year.

    I’m usually a pretty good loser, but in this case, my wife and boss (ECU alumn) have been making my life hell since this years game. I know kind of shallow…..but I am from the “lunatic fringe”.

  10. choppack1 01/19/2007 at 8:41 AM #

    Looking at this deal as a business proposition it sucks – especially playing them in Greenville.
    State gains little, if anything if it beats ECU. Even if ECU goes on to win the C-USA next year and we beat them, you won’t hear folks talk about how impressive it was for us to beat ECU.

    So from a national pub perspective – it’s a loser. From a revenue generation pov, it’s a loser. From a practical standpoint, it’s a losing deal.

    OTOH – this is a huge winning proposition for ECU. If they beat us, from a national perspective, it’s a winner. From a recruiting perspective it’s a winner. From a revenue generation pov, it’s a winner.

    This is like main character in Fargo asking his father and law and his father in law’s buddy, for a loan so he can do a business idea. The father in law and business partner are laughing at him, because all they get is a little interest on the loan. He brings nothing to the table.

    While I don’t think ECU brings NOTHING to the table – there’s clearly a lot of disparity in this event.

    I do think an argument can be made for a 3 and 1 series. I think this would be fair – over several years.

  11. Pack Laddie 01/19/2007 at 9:03 AM #

    If we are going to play ECU, I can see where they would expect us to come to Greenville.

    They are C-USA. We just finished a home and home with So Miss, and have an upcoming home and home with Central Florida, who are both C-USA schools. If we have that deal with other schools in their league, I can understand Holland expecting a game in Greenville.

    The debate, to me, is playing them at all.

  12. BoKnowsNCS71 01/19/2007 at 9:05 AM #

    I don’t really care for the ECU game either. Heck the next thing you know they’ll start making us play Duke again.

    I do understand the “politics” and the “pressure” put on UNC and NCSU to play ECU. The legislators hold the purse strings — he who has the gold rules. The away game brings money into the Greenville economy — gas, meal sales, motel rentals, etc. and that is what the legislators want.

    As for televising the game — jeez — they haven’t really televised the State – UNC game (like it should be) in the past few years. That year T.A. got stopped, it was on some isolated channel that was grainy with a fixed camera that made it look like a high school game production.

    We can gripe all we want but — barring another riot celebration by Pirate fans trashing CF — we are going to have to play them whether we like it or not.

  13. gopack968 01/19/2007 at 10:26 AM #

    We gain nothing playing ECU – and even less traveling to do it. There are so few non-conference games available and they are critical to ranking and post-season play. Some will argue a recruiting tool, critical to success in NC. Nonsense. Any NC recruit we target we can easily bring to Raleigh for an ACC game and show them big-time football.

    Any AD must carefully balance the non-con schedule to ensure it only helps the program. A home and home series with ECU does not help and can only hurt. An occasional game in Raleigh is one thing, traveling to Dowdy-Ficklen is stupid. It seems a lazy choice, borne of a lack of imagination and any real understanding of how to build a top-25 football program. At best the game is on ESPN-U, and probably not even here.

  14. noah 01/19/2007 at 10:42 AM #

    “I do understand the “politics” and the “pressure” put on UNC and NCSU to play ECU. The legislators hold the purse strings — he who has the gold rules.”

    Bull ****. *I* hold the gold. So do you. I vote in every election and I’m hopeful that everyone here does the same.

    Any state senator, representative or governor who tries to economically blackmail NC State, ECU, UNC or any other state school by mandating who they play in football or basketball is not bluffing…they’re just lying.

    This is the same bull **** that went on when UVa’s AD got blackmailed into voting for VPI to join the ACC in the expansion efforts. The job of the UVa AD is to do what’s in the best interests of the University of Virginia. The minute he starts worrying about what’s in the best interests of VPI is the minute he can go find another job.

    Any poltician who thinks that trying to force the ADs hand by exerting economic pressure is simply too stupid to tie his or her own shoes. A politician can openly accept sweetheart financial deals. He or she can take bribes from lobbyists. They can regulate or de-regulate all they want.

    Most voters don’t understand that stuff and they probably will never know. What they CAN’T do is have sex with someone who isn’t their spouse. Because *everyone* understands that.

    And that’s why they can’t suddenly take money away from NC State or UNC or ECU (or UVa or VPI) because of something the athletic department did. The only athletic department that I know of that accepts state funds is the Univ. of California (Cal Berkeley).

    What politician is going to take money away from some university capital project or scholarship fund or maintenance fund for classrooms because the football team won’t play ECU? Is there any district in the state where the consequences wouldn’t be DIRE? No politician can afford to suddenly freeze out a sizeable portion of the voters over something with NO upside. You’d probably lose a portion of the fanbase of the school you were helping as well, since it would be such an egregious use of the office.

  15. Sam92 01/19/2007 at 10:55 AM #

    playing ECU does not promote our program, regardless of whether we play them in carter-finley or greenville. that said, if we have to play them, it should either be at carter-finley or in charlotte.

    the fact that we are going to play in greenville indicates that we have a weakness somewhere. is it really lee fowler? or is it the influence of ECU grads in the state legislature?

    i take it as evidence that, on a state-wide level, we don’t have the same power and influence as UNC (shocker) — you don’t see them roped into this with ECU

    we would be much better served playing a middle team from another big conference — i thought the texas tech games were great in this respect

    we would get so much more out of playing a mississippi state, or Pitt, or Kansas

    i don’t think there’s anything we can do about it – it just bums me out.

  16. choppack1 01/19/2007 at 11:27 AM #

    Sam – There is plenty of ways out of it unless they have really good blackmail material.

    One way would be for Fowler to demand that if State has to play at ECU and is forced to play ECU, then shouldn’t UNC? Further, shouldn’t ECU be forced to play AT WCU and AT ASU?

    I think you go back to the beneficiaries of this game – this isn’t a case of mutual benefit, it’s clearly a case of zero-sum.

  17. BoKnowsNCS71 01/19/2007 at 11:39 AM #

    Noah — I know its frustrating but those are the facts. At one time, they even talked about enacting a law that required the teams to play. That persuasion was put aside and the schools started rescehduling.

    As for voting. Please. This is not a campaign issue that the (majority of) voters are going to make choices on. football scheduling? Pleez…..

    Terry Holland works the influential legislators. Most of them are from the eastern part of the state. If ECU did not have some political influence – -why did they get their Med school? That was political. I think a pharmacy program was also started up in a coastal county for economic purposes.

    The public will never “see” the egregious use (misuse) of power that makes state university employees cave in and comply with pressure to make the teams play each other — its much more subtle and back room than that.

    I’ve spend years fighting these guys on fishery conservation issues and the power of politics supersedes the rational and logical.

    Let’s just agree to disagree on this one.

  18. BoKnowsNCS71 01/19/2007 at 11:56 AM #

    Choppack “if State has to play at ECU and is forced to play ECU, then shouldn’t UNC?”

    UNC plays the Pirates in @ECU in 2007, home in 2009 and 2010 and @ECU in 2011.

    http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/022001aaa.html

    If folks think this is just LF — you are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

  19. StateFans 01/19/2007 at 1:08 PM #

    ^ You are missing the point, mightily. But, it is a very important distinction that needs to be clarified.

    Since the most recent round of inappropriate ‘pressure’ was applied by certain lawmakers around the year 2000…NC State has already chosen to schedule ECU something SEVEN TIMES – 1 in CLT, 3 in Raleigh, 3 in Greenville. We’ve already played two of those games.

    Conversely, Carolina chose to schedule ECU only 3 times – twice in Chapel Hill and only once in Greenville.

    Do the math. Fowler has CHOSEN to schedule ECU more than 100% MORE than Carolina has. The legislature could have been appeased with significantly less acquiesence by LF and NC State. And I haven’t even mentioned the disproportion of playing 1 for 1 home/away as Carolina scheduled 2/1 home and away.

  20. highstick 01/19/2007 at 6:09 PM #

    Duh, simple solution that we all know! Fire Lee Fowler and tell the politicians to kiss our butts! Expose the bastards to all to see!

    Oh, I forgot how corrupt the NC Legislature and Governor are! I’m a State grad and an ECU MBA and I hate ECU athletics with a passion going back to Pat Dye!

  21. Master 01/20/2007 at 9:48 AM #

    Our fans talk about ECU in the same disdainful tone UNX talks about Moo U.

  22. partialqualifier 01/20/2007 at 9:52 AM #

    Here’s an idea…..

    lets beat the piss outa ECU 3 or 4 times in a row and we wont have to worry about this. ECU loves scheduling us because they beat us half the time. Thye have every right to demand a home game based on that fact alone. Maybe if we would quit crying and actually beat their sorry asses like we should we wouldnt have to worry about it.

    Just a thought….or a rant…lol!

  23. Astral Rain 01/20/2007 at 10:27 AM #

    That is the best solution- not only to win, but to run up the score- try to hang 70 on them. Either that or start a Miami-FIU type fight that embarasses people so much it ends the series. The suspensions would only be against a I-AA opponent starting the next year anyways… I’m sure TOB can toughen up the kids enough for that- being Marine and all

    (just kidding on the whole fight club thing, but not on running up the score- of course you have to be able to score 70 to run up the score, and ECU is an OK program right now)

    I will say this, if ECU is a 9 or 10 win program next year- the game will mean something, and that is possible.

  24. doug 01/20/2007 at 11:25 AM #

    Someone had previously posted a comment saying that outside of Raleigh and Greenville nobody cared about the NCSU vs ECU football game. Here is another thought nobody outside of NC does not care about the NCSU vs UNC football game. Most State fans it seems care more about UNC losing than NCSU winning.

    Nation wide when NCSU football is mentioned they know that NCSU has beat FSU numerous times in football, they do not care about the NCSU-UNC game. Messages here in many cases seem to weave a anti UNC message in every post. I enjoy a UNC loss as much as anyone but loosing to UNC or even to ECU is not the end of the world but if NCSU can not defeat to C-USA team almost every year regardless of where the gane is played then it is a sign of more serious problems with our program.

  25. Mr O 01/20/2007 at 12:38 PM #

    App St and Western Carolina aren’t division 1 teams from a solid conference.

    ECU is a pretty good team in most years. I don’t have an issue playing them. The trip to Southern Miss was impossible for most NC State fans except for about 1000 people. IMO, playing ECU is a lot more interesting than Central Florida.

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