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If they will do it, why won't SMU? Like Stallion and others feel, why an ark. st.??

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Pirates beef up schedule
Football rivals will add revenue, Holland hopes





Holland says schedule will add visibility.


By JAYMES POWELL JR, Staff Writer


GREENVILLE -- The patsies are gone, and now East Carolina athletics director Terry Holland is bringing in the big boys -- and, he hopes, some money, too.
With the Pirates' football attendance sagging in recent years, Holland said he hopes ECU's new list of opponents will help sell out Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, which he said the university is planning to expand.

With several schools departing Conference USA, annual walk-over teams such as Army and Tulane no longer will play East Carolina every year. Holland, ECU and even city of Greenville officials hope home-and-away series with teams such as N.C. State and Virginia Tech ignite enthusiasm in the Pirates' fan base.

East Carolina has agreed to four games each against North Carolina (2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011), West Virginia (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009) and Navy (2006, 2010, 2011 and 2012), three against N.C. State (2007, 2010 and 2013) and two against Virginia (2006 and 2008).

The most surprising announcement Holland made Thursday was that ECU will play the Hokies eight times from 2006 to 2013, including a game in Charlotte in 2007.

"We expect each year to play as many as eight games against teams that are likely to qualify for bowls. That's a daggone tough schedule," Holland said. "That's a challenge for our coaches and our players. But it's also a challenge and a great opportunity for every [fan] to help support our team and coaches. We all need to help provide the ammunition.

"That comes from buying season tickets, joining the Pirate Club and becoming a part of what's going on at East Carolina football."

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium seats about 43,000, but with the Pirates winning only seven games over the past three seasons, attendance has plummeted. ECU averaged just 30,684 last season, and only 27,250 showed up for the Pirates' final home game against Memphis.

With fans eager to watch teams such as UVa, N.C. State and Virginia Tech, Holland says seats at a Pirates game will become hot tickets.

Even Greenville mayor Don Parrot joined in the jubilation over big-name teams coming to town.

"It's exciting because of the economics that it's going to bring to our community," Parrot said. "We all need to get out there and challenge ourselves to get more people into the Pirate Club.

"If all of us can get at least one person in there, we'll double the size of the club. ... It's up to us to support the university, get the people in the Pirate Club and buy the tickets."

Holland also said the future schedules give ECU and its new opponents a chance to build regional rivalries while also giving the schedules more of a big-time feel.

"For our non-conference schedule," Holland said, "our focus was to play games that our fans wanted to see and that recruits would want to play in and that were significant to the media markets in the Mid-Atlantic area, which is our home area where we compete everyday with the ACC, the SEC and Big East for students, athletes and media attention."

Staff writer Jaymes Powell Jr. can be reached at 829-4556 or [email protected]

© Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company,
a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company


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ECU recognizes the new CUSA west teams aren't going to draw well in Greenville, so this is pretty much a no-brainer. Not unlike SMU scheduling regional opponents who should draw well at Ford like Baylor, TTech and even UNT. It's not as much about playing tougher competition as it is putting butts in seats, but ECU may prosper under Skip Holtz and step up and beat some of these guys in future years. That will certaily help the image and reputation of CUSA. The eastern half of CUSA will do it's part. The question is whether the western group, especially the privates, will so anything to help CUSA. It's time for SMU to start beating schools like TTech when we can get them to come to Ford.

Yea see...we've had hard opponents for a while now..We just plain suck againist them..

We've had Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State (thank God we dont play them anymore) in most recent years..

I like our 06 schedule...

Its a more regional non-conference slate and I know tons of people are wanting the North Texas/SMU rivalry to kick off

Perhaps Holland isn't trying to disguise his lack of success. He may not think it matters if you get a win against Ark. St. It would be novel for an AD to want to test his programs and take responsibility when they don't pan out. Perhaps the fans could care less if thery play what should br patsies. Copeland is a wuss.

OP, don't you think Bennett has a lot to do with the softening of the schedule? On the flip side, he probably has a lot to do with our getting the A$M series, too. I always liked Hayden Fry's theory for scheduling one non-conference opponent you SHOULD beat, one very competitive game and one you HOPED you might beat. My guess is this is the John Thompson Georgetown theory, i.e., schedule some early wins, get your confidence up and then hope it leads to success in conference play where it really matters. We all know 2006 will be a critical year for Bennett's long term tenure at SMU

What you may or may not know is this:

Jim Copeland was AD at University of Virginia when Terry Holland was Head Coach of Basketball there. When Copeland left, Holland took over the AD position.

What that tells me is that Holland probably learned some things from Copeland. You may not realize that SMU is getting better by playing these teams. We didn't lose to Texas Tech by nearly as many points as TCU did. Holland is doing the same at ECU.

Now the softening of the schedule? I think that is partly Bennett's motives to get his win totals up.

But after we get beat up by Tech (even if we did come close to winning), TCU, and Oklahoma State..Our team's confidence is shots..

SMU has to get wins and early in the season. We need to be confident heading into conference play IMO

ECU is trying to make money.

One of the main reasons we have scheduled Texas Tech and OSU in the past was an attempt to curb the mounting deficit that the athletic department faces every year. Pressure was put on Copeland to schedule teams that would pack Ford. In 2001, Turner and Copeland were trying to schedule Notre Dame and Georgia Tech. In 2003, Copeland was quoted in the DMN as saying he wanted to schedule Texas. I assure you they were not doing it to improve the product on the field, they were doing it to make money. It has been said on this forum before, we were renting fans. It is easier to fill the stands with other schools' fans than it would be to make the product on the field worth watching.

Bennett wants the schedule we have this year and next. He has wanted it since he came here. He believes you need to build confidence and getting pounded by the top half of the big XII isn't the way to do it. He's been saying it for years. Other coaches have been saying it for years, too. Copeland has decided to give Bennett what he wants. It isn't about disguising the record; if Bennett beats Ark. State, SHSU and still finishes with four wins in 2006, in all likelihood, he is still going to be fired.

There is only one group of people within SMU that want the schedule you want and I assure you that as a supporter of SMU football, you don't want to associate with them. They don’t want it for the same reasons you do. They don't care about wins; they don't care about the team; they don't care about you.

Copeland, IMHO, is trying to disguise his dismal record. Other than the football stadium (which I believe was not really a Copeland accomplishment), he has been at the helm while we stagger ever more deeply into the abyss. Since he has been here, basketball facilities are the same, the football program gets worse with each year, he fires good coaches while keeping a guy (and extending his contract) who has demonstrated nothing, he has now introduced schedule-lite and our basketball program is no better than the day he arrived. What does this guy have to do to convince people that he is a loser. Turner needs to look at this Dope and get rid of him immediately. He certainly has not shown the same mercy to his coaches that Turner has shown to him. Instead, he deflects ownership of his dismal record by firing coaches and acting as if they were to blame.

OldPony, I TOTALLY agree.

I came to my conclusion about Copeland two years ago and it hasn't improved. Unfortunately, SMU is trying the least expensive way out and waiting for his retirement. Is that in two years?

When did he get his contract reviewed and extended? Are we really stuck with this joke for another 2 years?

I keep hoping he gets one of the jobs he applies for. He applies for every AD job that comes open. Some loyalty, huh?

Copeland cannot hide his record and wins and losses are only part of it.

Copeland is fulfilling the wishes of his coach, who has been wanting to downgrade the schedule since he got here. I am sure you'd be much happier with the faculty senate scheduling the games. They would be renting SMU out to the highest bidder.

Yeah- The other coaches wanted hard schedules. Ole Copeland just gives the coaches what they want. Get real Blog.
Its hard BTW to lighten a schedule when you already play mostly bottom 35 teams. The Bennett (Snyder) theory doesn't work when your whole schedule is patsies