ECU Paid $300k to Play NC State

General NC State Administration NCS Football69

In a move only endorsed by people with memories of less than 20 years – or who are general morons – NC State and East Carolina have moved kickoff for the two schools’ November 25th battle to 7pm. (Link)

^This announcement and the idiotic message board banter that has already begun related to the game got us thinking a little about the Pirates and the Pack. We are going to have a lot more commentary on the Pirates and Pack in the next 11 days, but until then we wanted to share a clarifying note related to a ‘conversation’ that we saw on a message board where a Pirate fan wouldn’t/couldn’t grasp the importance

With this in mind, we ask that you turn your attention to the article from the Clarion Ledger (quoted below) that will clear up some of the confusion for the folks out there that love to run their mouth without having a single fact to support what they wish were true.

SFN hears about fiscal responsibility from the NC State Athletics Administration all of the time. Most recently we have heard from numerous people connected to the University that Chuck Amato (AND Marc Trestman’s) jobs are 100% safe because Lee Fowler and NC State’s Administration ‘cannot’/will not pay for buyouts related to their contracts. We want to make sure that emphasize that there is a big difference between “cannot” and “will not”. Unfortunately for State fans, the Department likes to present things that they “will not” do as things that “cannot” be done.

So, can anyone explain to us how East Carolina could afford to fire their football coach and basketball coach in the same year? And, how they can afford to pay THREE different football coaches (Logan, Thompson, Holtz) simultaneously while shelling out $300k just to get a road game at NC State?

ECU to Pay $300,000 to USM to play NCSU in 2006;
USM to make nearly $1M for game at Va. Tech
By Tim Doherty
[email protected]

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Southern Miss’ visit to Virginia Tech next season is expected to add nearly $1 million to the Golden Eagles’ budget.

“It will be the best game, financially, that we’ve ever played on the road,” USM athletic director Richard Giannini said before Tuesday’s game here against Marshall. “It’s an opportunity that financially is a great deal for us.”

Tech announced Monday evening that it had added USM to its 2006 schedule, swapping the Golden Eagles for East Carolina. Tech will pay USM more than $600,000 as a guarantee, Giannini said about the game that is set for Sept. 16, 2006, in Blacksburg, Va.

East Carolina will pay USM an additional $300,000-plus for taking the game off the Pirates’ schedule. “It’s more (than $900,000), close to a million,” Giannini said.

The Pirates and Hokies had been scheduled to start a nine-year series next fall, but ECU had the opportunity to revive an intrastate rivalry with North Carolina State. The catch: ECU had to start the N.C. State series in 2006.

Tech told the Pirates it would delay the start of their series if ECU could find an acceptable replacement.
Giannini said he turned down a return trip from the Hokies in 2014 because the one-game deal meant a bigger payday.

“We talked about it, but it was just too far down the road,” Giannini said.

USM’s 2006 non-conference schedule will feature road games at Tech and Florida and home games with Southeastern Louisiana and North Carolina State.

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General NC State Administration NCS Football

69 Responses to ECU Paid $300k to Play NC State

  1. joe 11/14/2006 at 12:59 PM #

    Does NCSU have the right to tell ESPNU that they do not want the game on TV because they want to play during the day? Or does the ACC TV contract not allow teams to turn down TV games?

  2. Girlfriend in a Coma 11/14/2006 at 1:02 PM #

    Sheridan turned down ESPN at least once (UVa IIRC) in order to play in the afternoon. I don’t know if that was a different contract.

  3. joe 11/14/2006 at 1:04 PM #

    UVa turned down TV for a home game a few years back as well. But those were under different contracts.

  4. one00_proof 11/14/2006 at 1:17 PM #

    The ship is sinking and Lee Fowler won’t hand out the life jackets it seems. Though you never know, this whole situation could change if we lose to both UNC and ECU. Word is some of the big donors are none toohappy with Amato and maybe willing to accumulate the funds to buyout Amato and his assistands if a suitable candidate(s) emerges.

  5. Mr O 11/14/2006 at 1:19 PM #

    Why don’t we want to play the game at night?

    SFN: You REALLY want to give their fan base the opportunity to drink all day and visit our stadium at night? The last THREE times that they have done this they have severely vandalized our stadium. The last two times that they have done this they have torn down our goal posts.

  6. Pack84 11/14/2006 at 1:19 PM #

    Are you kidding? Jed would play at 4am on Christmas Day if he thought he could make a buck or two.

  7. BoKnowsNCS71 11/14/2006 at 1:37 PM #

    Money talks. Fans walk.

    ECS got their victory over USM three games back 20-17 in OT. USM of course gave the Pack our worst loss margin (20 pts) at the start of the season.

    Not that I have lost faith but I sold my game tickets to another Pack fan last week. Not as protest — I just hate to watch misery continue. Maybe next year.

  8. Great Dane Guy 11/14/2006 at 1:38 PM #

    I thought Trestman had a 2 year contract. Wouldn’t that be up this year? And didn’t Amato have an annuity to kick in after year 7? Isn’t that now? Anyone know the specifics? I would almost like to grab Frank Cignetti and let Trestman go.

  9. gopack968 11/14/2006 at 1:40 PM #

    Could be worse… the game could start at noon.

  10. GAWolf 11/14/2006 at 1:53 PM #

    What’s the over-under on brawls in the stands? Please understand that this does not count brawls in the parking lot before and after the game as those will be way too numerous to bet on. I would compare such a number to guessing how many jellybeans are in a three-gallon pickle jar.

    What a bunch of idiots our administration is. Please tell me what we have to gain from this move? If we win, as always, we’ll get the ol’ pat on the back for winning a game we SHOULD win. If we lose, the money lost by the damage done to our program on national tv (not that ample damage has not already been done this year and we’re too stupid to cut our losses) including but not limited to: that to our in-state recruiting, that to our out-of-state recruiting, that to our in-state image, that to our national image, that to our in-state marketability, that to our national marketability, and so on…. could be that of such financial consequence that we lose dollars to the pennies gained from any such TV contract with ESPNU for YEARS to come.

    Jed is such a stupid, short-sighted, egotistical, pornstache-wearing, idiot. Why can’t we do something about him?

  11. Mr O 11/14/2006 at 1:58 PM #

    Didn’t we rip down the goal posts when MOC beat them in his 2nd to last year at CF? Maybe 1998?

    SFN: Didn’t we play the game in Raleigh? On OUR field?

    I went to the ECU game two years ago and there were no brawls. I will have at least two ECU fans in my group.

    SFN: GREAT!! You went to a game in a 70,000 seat stadium in the early part of the day that was hundreds of miles away from their school in a year that they were 1-10. It will be JUST LIKE a night game in Raleigh that they think that they are going to win!

  12. joe 11/14/2006 at 2:00 PM #

    I guess nobody knows if NCSU had the ability to turn down TV for this game?

  13. wolfpackbball 11/14/2006 at 2:00 PM #

    In all honesty, SFN, giving ECU’s fanbase 4 hours of drinking time between the hours of 8:00 am and 12:00 noon are enough to have the stadium seriously vandalized. As a matter of fact, the goalposts would probably come down with only one hour of drinking from the pirates. I don’t think a night start makes that issue too much worse.

  14. justaguy 11/14/2006 at 2:08 PM #

    “The last THREE times that they have done this they have severely vandalized our stadium. The last two times that they have done this they have torn down our goal posts”

    As a freshman, the first wolfpack game I ever saw was a night game against ECU in 1973. The pack scored early and often and I learned the fight song by the end of the 1st quarter. I think the final score was 56-7. The pack tore up the pirates and gave them nothing to cheer about. That’s how you keep them from tearing down the goal posts and vandalizing the stadium. Make them drink to forget; not to celebrate.

  15. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 11/14/2006 at 2:09 PM #

    I learned several years ago that security is expected to use pepper spray to controll the crowd if needed. At the same time I was told that NC State had been planning a bon fire for students at an undisclosed location for students after a big win. To my knowledge the students never had that bon fire nor the team the big win. This was probably two or three years ago and I guess those plans where put away at the end of that season because the BC win would of qualified.

    Do they still light the Memorial Tower Red after big victories. Upsets come so few and far between recently and I’m rarely near the tower at night so I don’t know.

  16. Mr O 11/14/2006 at 2:22 PM #

    Tower was read after FSU.

  17. Andy 11/14/2006 at 2:28 PM #

    oh and I have had several friends give first hand accounts that yes they do use pepper spray/mace

  18. CarnifeX 11/14/2006 at 2:29 PM #

    They’ve torn down the tower and put up a statue of Lee Fowler.

  19. Pack Laddie 11/14/2006 at 2:37 PM #

    Two things-

    1) According tot the paper this morning, by contract we cannot turn down the TV game, thus the 7:00 kick, whether we like it or not.

    SFN: This is what we have heard. Of course, if they game was never scheduled in the first place then we don’t have this problem. But…it was what was best for ECU…and that seemed to be all that NC State’s Athletics Director needed to schedule them.

    2) It is my understanding that Trestman has a 4 year deal, at $250 per, meaning if we were to can him now, we would owe him half a mil

  20. Pack Laddie 11/14/2006 at 2:47 PM #

    From the N & O article this morning—-

    NCSU athletics director Lee Fowler said he had no concerns about the starting time.

    “At this time of the year you’d rather play in the afternoon,” he said Monday. “It makes it easier for the fans to get home and the weather can be cold. But the TV contract says if [ESPNU] chooses us for a game, we play.”

  21. Girlfriend in a Coma 11/14/2006 at 2:56 PM #

    ECU fans make our worst fans, by comparison, look like the John Houseman character from The Paper Chase.

  22. Mr O 11/14/2006 at 2:58 PM #

    There is probably a clause in Trestman’s contract that says we have to make up the difference between his salary at NC State and whatever he would be making in his next job. Which means that we would likely owe him his entire salary for the remaining two years of his contract.

    So the T-man will be back on our sidelines next year.

  23. unc9200 11/14/2006 at 3:18 PM #

    Given what happened in the stands at the BC-NCSU game this season, and the tailgate tragedy of 9/04/04, maybe y’all ought to lay off ECU fans.

  24. TomCat 11/14/2006 at 3:23 PM #

    Fans who attended the last night-time ECU game at Carter-Finley… are either in a rest home at this point or have 3 kids and a mini-van. That was a different era. I don’t buy the “invading horde” hype (considering recent history in NCSU tailgate areas we have little room to preach)

    SFN: Interesting. That is EXACTLY what people said in 1999? 2000? when NC State was nice enough to let ECU use our stadium for a home game against Miami when Greenville was flooded. How old are those people today?

    Now- if it was West Virginia… that would scare the hell out of me…another story. I don’t recall any problems in our most recent /night game we played ECU- in Charlotte except for the mugging of Jamie Barnette et al on the field itself. We handled them going away last time in Carter-Finley in an afternoon game- didn’t see any problems. As Mr. O said above: it’s simple…. just win the game. To be honest- if ECU wins this Saturday, they may rest many of their starters the Saturday in Raleigh to prevent injuries prior to their conference Championship game vs. Houston.

  25. class of 74 11/14/2006 at 3:28 PM #

    I have many friends from high school that went to EC, and if it is today as it was when they went to school, the drinking did not start on saturday it began on thursday after classes and went all weekend. The Elbow Room was a staple of their Thursday nights. Animal House had nothing on Greenville in the late sixties and early seventies I can assure you.

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