East Carolina Pirate Fans Think Appalachian State Is Not Worthy Of Their Time

So it was an interesting week last past week. I (Thomas) reported on Mountaineers athletic director Doug Gillin and his conversation about how App State is working to build their brand. This includes things like scheduling non-conference games against P5 opponents, and East Carolina came up.

Gillin talked about how he's had conversations with ECU about scheduling some games, and also how he would love to play a neutral site game against ECU or any other P5 team, using Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, home of the NFL's Panthers, as an example. We had the good fortune that the story was picked up by the ECU Football Facebook page, with the tagline "Would you like a neutral site game against App State?"

Buckle up, folks.

Out of the 150-plus ECU fans who commented, 87 percent said that no, they would not want a neutral-site game against Appalachian State. More to the point, one-third of those who said no specifically said no to having the matchup in a neutral location.

Some argued economy (with varying degrees of grammatical correctness):

NO & YES. Home and home. Playing at a neutral-site will only put $$$ in the pockets of Charlotte businesses. Boone and Greeville businesses won't get nothing. At this point, App would have no choice but to play at BOA Stadium as ECU fans would bring 30,000+ to Boone and we don't have the seats. I LIK THE GAME BETWEEN THE TWO BECAUSE I WENT TO APP STATE AND MY BROTHER & FATHER WENT TO ECU.

We don't need to play ANYONE in Charlotte! !! Takes away from OUR home's economy!! Why can't OUR folks understand that??!!?? We need a 7th home game like the big boys do!! We can find plenty of teams that will come to Greenville every time to play us so why would we continue to go to Charlotte and continue to hurt those that support us the most! We need Greenville shut down on game days because EVERYONE is at the game!! And teams that continually weasel out of coming to Greenville like the Cock $£(/£♤^ I say to hell with them!! Schedule someone else. Let's continue to build on our atmosphere and make season ticket sales skyrocket!!!~~smh~~

Thomas: Basically if both schools schedule this game, they're taking a spoon out of a Greenville child's mouth and putting it in a Charlotte kid's mouth.

Nicolas: Yes. East Carolina would definitely bring 30,000 fans to a damn road game. I don't care if it was against 'Bama, that's just not happening, though he makes a fair point about such a game benefiting the Charlotte economy rather than either the Boone or Greenville economy. Note I said fair point, not good point.

Though speaking of Greenville, the majority of those who said no to the neutral site rather than the matchup itself said that Appalachian State is essentially "not a good enough opponent" to warrant anything beyond a home-and-home series.

No !! Way !! Play them in greenville !! Not big enough school for play at Bank of America!!

Thomas: Charlotte has the highest number of App State alums by far. In the 74k+ BoA Stadium, App State could bring 30,000 to the first one, as many of which would have a shorter drive than usual.

If we want to be a P5 school we have to play P5 schools. Beating a small school won't do us any good. At the most only one non P5 school a year.

Thomas: Someone should send this cat a memo saying App State is FBS. A game with App would actually be fine with him if he knew.

Nicolas: Yeah, didn't you know that when you defeat an ACC team, you automatically become a member? I can't believe this isn't common knowledge yet.

No app in Charlotte Greenville yes Boone no. They have not earned that yet

Thomas: According to most ECU fans, if it isn't ACC or SEC, they haven't earned it. So I guess App will never earn it.

God I hope not! Let them play Charlotte in Charlotte, not us. Stupid idea.

Thomas: Well yeah, but App is already playing the 49ers at Charlotte in 2018 and in Boone in 2019, so that's already done.

Nope wouldn't go if we were playing for a national championship in Charlotte...no smoking areas anywhere in stadium!

Nicolas: There you have it. NO SMOKING, I'M OUT BRUH.

Underwhelming. MAC is a consistent let down.

Nicolas: I'm not at all sure what the Mid-American Conference has to do with any of this. Perhaps he is confusing Appalachian State with... I don't know, Bowling Green? Who the hell knows.

It's been a long time since they beat Michigan so I don't understand why we want to play them.

Nicolas: I know, can you believe that game is eight years ago already? Why the hell would you want to play a team that has only won 54 games in seven years since then and only had one losing record? Besides, it isn't like they beat two teams (Louisiana and Arkansas State) better than ECU last year, or almost beat ECU five years ago.

I don't see the point. NC state, UNC or SC I can see.

Thomas: Why would USC fly all the way from LA to Charlotte just to play ECU? Oh, right, that SC. Still - they look at you like you're trying to look at App State. You do know that, right?

App st is not the same team of the mid 2000s, so no, if we play neutral site teams I would much rather them be ACC, SEC, West Virginia, BYU etc

Thomas: They're right. All App State has now is 22 more scholarships, a six-game win streak and one of the best rushing offenses in all FBS.

It's ironic that we sound just like hole and state fans when the topic of playing asu comes up. How soon we forget that it was the state legislature that pushed the issue for state and unc to play us. I've got no problem doing a series with them every few years. However a neutral site game in Charlotte is just dumb. Whereas ECU fans will show up in droves (thus justifying the economic impact as well as a packed house) asu will bring 7000 closeted hole fans who frankly will be to stoned to find the stadium. Point of having a neutral site is having fans on both sides pack an 80k venue and market it has a big game.

Nicolas: What the hell is a hole fan? Are you talking about the band? I have no idea what Courtney Love ever did to you, but you gotta let it go. Also, what makes you think all of whatever Mountaineer fans come to the game will be "too stoned to find the stadium"? Have you been to a game and gotten a contact high or something? If so, I need to go to Boone more often.

Thomas: Of course ECU has to bring up Chapel Hill and NC State into this, because they fawn over games with them. It took an act of state legislature to get those two to play ECU again and now their poop doesn't stink. If a big market is what this is all about, ECU should play Charlotte in BoA Stadium. After all, they lobbied for them to join Conference USA because of their "media market potential".

Nicolas: Oh, it's "Tar Heel" = "Tar Hole" = "hole fans." That's way less clever than what I just thought up.

So basically, ECU fans view App State the same way Tar Heel and Wolfpack fans view them? Maybe an act of state legislature would benefit App State in this instance.