East Carolina Pirates: Tweeting to the Big 12

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Nov 28, 2015; Greenville, NC, USA; East Carolina Pirates wide receiver Isaiah Jones (7) runs with the ball after a catch against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The Cincinnati Bearcats defeated the East Carolina Pirates 19-16. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports /

Further afield: East Carolina?

The addition of West Virginia showed that the Big 12 was willing to spread out of its geographic hotbed for a team with tradition and support. There are not a lot of other schools to target if they were to do that again. Memphis, ECU, USF, or UCF would make some sense though the geographical foot print would mean nothing.

UCF would bring the Big 12 into Florida, and they are currently better than USF right now. Neither Florida school has a great basketball tradition to otherwise be attractive. How valuable are Florida recruits and tvs to the Big 12? Since the conference has always mined Texas for guys, I don’t know if either UCF or USF are worth it.

Memphis has a basketball tradition that could be useful to the Big 12. The team won the American Athletic in football this year. It does not provide any new recruiting grounds, but is outside the current Big 12 foot print without being really outside of it.

More from Old North Banter

East Carolina has good football tradition, but that is where the ball stops. The Big 12 does not need a finger in the already over divided pie that is North Carolina recruiting. They might gain some exposure in the Tidewater Virginia area, but that would be it.

Basketball is not going to be an ECU calling card in trying to sell the school. I don’t the Big 12 would find a good fit here.
What will the Big 12 do? We will have to watch and wait.

Next: OC Hire Indicates Smoother Transition

So that is where I stood two years ago. As we live through the next period of expansion, has anything changed?

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