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A tale of two leagues…
East Carolina’s 21-17 ‘slobbernocker’ road win over Marshall on Saturday vaulted the Bucs into first place in the East, but also solidified the division’s reputation as C-USA’s equivalent to the NFL’s ‘Norse’ division, where defense, field position and turnovers make the difference in the game.
Later that night, the CUSA West featured a rootin’-tootin’ shootout, with UTEP beating #12 Houston 58-41. With 99 total points, 1245 total yards and 1549 all purpose yards between the two, the game highlighted the marked contrast between the East and the West. Even more remarkable was that Houston managed a whopping 42 first downs - and lost by 17. This isn’t anything new in the West however, as UH and UTEP have averaged over 75 total points and a thousand yards combined over their last five matchups.
For ECU’s sake, let’s hope the old adage of ‘defense wins championships’ holds true this year, as it did with ECU’s stellar defensive effort versus Tulsa in the 2008 Championship Game.
Pirate fans were beginning to wonder if the day and night difference between the divisions were beginning to carry over off the field as well. After the UTEP win over Houston and UH’s win over Texas Tech the week prior, fans took to the field to celebrate their milestone victories, but the league was seemingly reluctant to enforce the apparent infraction of league rules regarding post game celebrations.
Those league rules in summary state that fans are not to take the field until the visiting team and officials are safely escorted off the field, a condition that was clearly not met according to YouTube videos from the games in question.
It’s not surprising that Pirate fans would be sensitive to CUSA’s treatment of these post-game histrionics. ECU’s win over the eighth-ranked Mountaineers of West Virginia in 2008 had a similar post game situation. In that game however, the league imposed a $10,000 fine and warned East Carolina that any further activities of that sort would resort in ECU’s forfeiture of the right to host the CUSA Championship game.
It was only after a barrage of emails to the league office and repeated inquiries by PIrate Radio 1250 that CUSA commissioner Briton Banowsky acquiesced and indicated that he would assess a fine to the University of Houston (no word on how much) and “will likely do the same in the UTEP case, but it remains under review.”
It’s counter-intuitive, but the league has a policy of allowing the member institutions to decide how and if these league sanctions will be made known. If the purpose is to bring awareness and education to the inherent safety issues, then allowing the ‘guilty’ school to remain mute goes against the grain. ECU AD Terry Holland as usual, was above board and communicative with respect to last year’s league action. I’ve seen no such openness from our league mates from the Lone Star State.
So we may never know the extent of the financial penalty or if the same threats were issued with the fine, but ECU’s already had the last laugh, and the CUSA Championship hardware to prove it.
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