“I’m not trying to be disrespectful to any schools, but nobody has ever heard of schools like East Carolina.â€
—Eric Hyman
(then) Texas Christian University, Athletics Director discussing TCU’s recent move to the Mountain West Conference
Houston Chronicle
July 7, 2005
Link
We briefly referenced East Carolina’s bowl trip in this entry and needed to follow-up the comments now that more information is trickling in.
Now it might have appeared the game was well attended if you were one of the few who watched East Carolina and South Florida go at it at Birmingham’s Legion Field, but all that was part illusion because most of the “announced” 32,023 were seated on one side of the stadium facing the cameras.
Interesting. This entry at Wizard of Odds makes the entire bowl sound like one of the most miserable experiences imagineable. The entry also states the following:
The TV ratings are in and it’s not good. Of the five bowls owned by ESPN, the Pizza Bowl was the lowest rated, falling far behind the Hawaii, Armed Forces, Las Vegas and New Mexico bowls. And even the Motor City Bowl got better numbers.
In light of Eric Hyman’s quote with which we led this entry…is any of this really a surprise?
Heck, media at real football schools proclaim that their schedules are ‘boring’ when East Carolina is included. (Link)
So sad. Maybe the lack of interest has something to do with what Sports Illustrated calls some of the ugliest uniforms in America?
