ASU will play ECU for 1st time since 1979

Mountaineers also have McNeese State Cowboys on 2009 football schedule

By: By Tommy Bowman | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: October 22, 2008

Appalachian State will play East Carolina in football for the first time in 30 years when they open the 2009 season Sept. 5 in Greenville.

ASU released its schedule yesterday, which includes six home games and first-time meetings with McNeese State and N.C. Central.

The Mountaineers and Pirates, once rivals in the old North State Conference and later in the Southern Conference, last played in 1979. It will be the 30th meeting between the programs in a series that began in 1932 and in which ASU leads 19-10.

"I've heard so much about the rivalry and the games with East Carolina that I'm sure a lot of fans, alums and ex-players from both schools will really look forward to renewing the competition," Coach Jerry Moore of the Mountaineers said.

"We always want to play really good opponents and East Carolina is that. I've asked and wondered many times what the chances of getting a game would be and the athletics directors got together and made it happen."

The game against ECU will mark continuation of the Mountaineers playing at least one NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) opponent each season. The Mountaineers have three games against FBS opponents scheduled for future seasons: at Florida in 2010, at Virginia Tech in 2011 and at Georgia in 2013.

Charlie Cobb, Appalachian's athletics director, said that he's pleased to play an in-state FBS opponent next season. The Mountaineers have done so only once, against N.C. State in 2006, since a series against Wake Forest ended in 2001.

"I think all Appalachian people are going to be pretty excited to play East Carolina, and hopefully there's some potential for some games down the road," said Cobb, who said he has talked with Terry Holland, ECU's athletics director, about future games. "The door is open for that possibility."

The Mountaineers will receive $300,000 for the playing the Pirates in Greenville next year.

"We're going to sell a lot of tickets, I think that's part of the equation, too," Cobb said. "There's going to be a lot of interest from our fans for this game."

The Mountaineers' first home game in 2009 will be against McNeese State on Sept. 12. The Cowboys, from the Southland Conference, were national runners-up in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in 1997 and 2002 and were the No. 2 seed in last year's FCS playoffs.

The game with McNeese is part of a three-game series. The Mountaineers will travel to Lake Charles, La., in 2013 and play the Cowboys in Boone in 2014.

ASU will play N.C. Central, which moved from Division II to Division I last year, in Boone on Oct. 10. The Mountaineers will begin their eight-game Southern Conference schedule on Sept. 26 with a home game against Samford.

"We're very pleased that we're playing all our games in North and South Carolina, that's good for our fan base and alums," said Jay Sutton, an associate athletics director at ASU who does much of the ground work for football scheduling. Sutton said he is also pleased to have a next-season schedule complete earlier than in recent years."

■ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.