A Look at East Carolina's Brief History on ABC

The early-season releases continue to gradually trickle in this week. Yesterday, ESPN released a set of early-season network and kickoff time designations. While heavyweight clashes such as Texas-Ohio State and LSU-Mississippi may have grabbed headlines, ESPN opened the door for another rarity. East Carolina-Alabama received the noon ET slot on ABC on Saturday, September 5th.

East Carolina has long been a household name in the Group of Five, but it may surprise some to learn that the Pirates have only appeared on ABC four times. The Pirates’ appearance against Alabama will be the program’s first on ABC since 2015 and just its second since 1976. It will also be East Carolina’s first national ABC appearance ever. The school’s other three ABC appearances were regional slots.

Their last ABC appearance represents a broadcast landscape nearly unrecognizable today, despite being just 11 years ago. ABC broadcast East Carolina’s 2015 game against Virginia Tech regionally to an area spanning from the southern Pennsylvania/New Jersey region down to Florida, and west to Eastern Tennessee. ESPN2 broadcast the game to the rest of the country.

The ABC stations that did not air ECU-VT broadcast Ohio State-Western Michigan instead, with that game airing on ESPN2 in ECU-VT’s ABC region. Remember reverse-mirroring? (See the coverage maps for reference: ECU-VT,OSU-WMU).

It turned out that ABC aired the inferior game to most of the country. While Ohio State breezed by Western Michigan 38-12, James Summers willed East Carolina to a thrilling 35-28 victory over Virginia Tech with 169 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. Summers also threw for 110 yards and another score.

One would have to go back nearly another 40 years to find the last time East Carolina appeared on ABC before the 2015 Virginia Tech game. Texas had a down year entering its Thanksgiving night clash with Texas A&M, with a 4-4-1 record, so ABC downgraded the rivalry from a national telecast to a regional one.

The network then gave regional slots to 10-0 Rutgers vs. 9-1 Colgate, and to 6-3-1 Appalachian State vs. 8-2 East Carolina. Shares of the Southern Conference title were at stake in App State-ECU. The Pirates only needed a tie, while the Mountaineers needed a win. While the high stakes enticed ABC somewhat, a requirement to air two schools every two years mostly persuaded ABC to air the game.

The Pirates beat App State 35-7 to finish Southern Conference play undefeated and win the title outright. East Carolina ran for 317 yards and held the Mountaineers to 51 passing yards. Unfortunately, no bowl game invited the 9-2 Pirates.

Finally, East Carolina’s first ABC appearance ever was in 1974. Fresh off a 9-2 1973 campaign culminating in a Southern Conference championship, the Pirates started the season 3-0. ABC picked up East Carolina’s game with 4-0, #8-ranked NC State to air regionally alongside Alabama-Mississippi and Wisconsin-Missouri.

The Pirates sought to avenge an embarrassing 57-8 loss to the Wolf Pack the year before.

East Carolina nearly pulled off the upset, racing to a 14-0 lead. However, NC State came back and won 24-20 despite allowing 318 rushing yards.

Given East Carolina’s limited history on ABC, its spot against Alabama on the network may have been the biggest story of ESPN’s upfront, not Texas-Ohio State or LSU-Mississippi.

Special thanks to Mattsarzsports.com for the coverage maps.