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Are we too good for G5 or not?

GarnetBeamer

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Dec 7, 2020
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Folks are going ballistic (and rightly so) that we are playing at ECU this coming season. The crux of the argument being, in short, that as a P5 and SEC team, playing on the road at a G5 school is beneath us (even us).

Meanwhile, many posters are gushing that the expanded playoff is great because it gives the G5 programs a long overdue seat at the table in the national title discussion.

Help me to find a harmony between these schools of thought. One the one hand, playing at a G5 program is beneath even a 2-8 SEC program. On the other hand, G5 programs are legit enough to deserve a share in playing for the national title.

The former would seem to indicate there's a clear difference between playing P5 and G5. The latter suggests there's not much difference at all.
 
The practice of a P5 school playing at a G5 site is becoming more common than most care to admit. The TV proliferation of broadcasting almost all conference games has become lucrative for the G5 schools as well.
So, they no longer have to agree to a one time lump sum without any recourse ( a home on home schedule) from the big boys.
This had led to ND playing at Temple, Miami at App St, Mizzou at Wyoming among several.
Again, it comes down to the payday .
 
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Don’t care what anyone says, Carolina going to East Carolina for football is absolutely ridiculous and someone should have to explain why they agreed to this. Carolina has nothing to gain by winning but has ton to lose if they don’t.
 
Don’t care what anyone says, Carolina going to East Carolina for football is absolutely ridiculous and someone should have to explain why they agreed to this. Carolina has nothing to gain by winning but has ton to lose if they don’t.
You do know that we can win or lose to them no matter where we play? Playing at home does not guarantee we win. See Citadel, Pacific et al
 
Are you asking if we would dominate the competition year in and year out if we were at the G5 level in football? My guess is sadly, no we still would not. Could def be a UCF type team though
 
Folks are going ballistic (and rightly so) that we are playing at ECU this coming season. The crux of the argument being, in short, that as a P5 and SEC team, playing on the road at a G5 school is beneath us (even us).
I don't think our fans think its beneath us, I think it's that some fans would rather see us schedule a more sure fire win at home vs going to ECU for a game.

Some will argue to be the best you need to play a harder schedule or they want to see more interesting quality out of conference opponents like ECU, and the others referenced above will say with Clemson and SEC, our schedule is already hard enough lets get play at home when we can and get some higher probability wins and momentum.
 
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Its just a football game, after all. And I suppose, if there are going to be some games between P5 and G5, then it might as well start out with the lower tier P5 schools, since they are on about the same level. And I disagree that we have "nothing to gain". A win is something to gain, no matter how much some of us turn their noses up at ECU.
 
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Folks are going ballistic (and rightly so) that we are playing at ECU this coming season. The crux of the argument being, in short, that as a P5 and SEC team, playing on the road at a G5 school is beneath us (even us).

Meanwhile, many posters are gushing that the expanded playoff is great because it gives the G5 programs a long overdue seat at the table in the national title discussion.

Help me to find a harmony between these schools of thought. One the one hand, playing at a G5 program is beneath even a 2-8 SEC program. On the other hand, G5 programs are legit enough to deserve a share in playing for the national title.

The former would seem to indicate there's a clear difference between playing P5 and G5. The latter suggests there's not much difference at all.
No. You couldn't be more wrong. The argument is if we were Alabama it wouldn't make sense. We win and were supposed to. We lose and it's a disaster. It's a no win situation matter if we are a good or bad team. It has nothing to do with them being beneath us.
 
I don't think our fans think its beneath us, I think it's that some fans would rather see us schedule a more sure fire win at home vs going to ECU for a game.

Some will argue to be the best you need to play a harder schedule or they want to see more interesting quality out of conference opponents like ECU, and the others referenced above will say with Clemson and SEC, our schedule is already hard enough lets get play at home when we can and get some higher probability wins and momentum.
IMO, USC has enough juice to insist on OOC contracts with lower tier P5 and upper tier G5 schools such that it will not be an even home and home series. USC does not have enough juice to insist that all such games will be played at W-B.

I think the original agreement with ECU was a 5 game set, with 3 at W-B, 1 at BOA Charlotte, and 1 at Dowdy-Ficklen in Greenville.

I don't think USC can (nor should) patently refuse to play a lower P5 / upper G5 on the road in principle. I think that USC should have some definable criteria the opponent has to meet, e.g., seating capacity, potential to sell out, distance from SC (how many of you will travel to Greenville to watch the game?), recruiting possibilities, etc.

Recall that we did play UCF in Orlando 6 years ago. And Alabama did play Dook in Durham 11 years ago (yes, that game was sort of a one-off paying homage to Wallace Wade, but please note that the Tide did not object in principle to the location).
 
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IMO, USC has enough juice to insist on OOC contracts with lower tier P5 and upper tier G5 schools such that it will not be an even home and home series. USC does not have enough juice to insist that all such games will be played at W-B.

I think the original agreement with ECU was a 5 game set, with 3 at W-B, 1 at BOA Charlotte, and 1 at Dowdy-Ficklen in Greenville.

I don't think USC can (nor should) patently refuse to play a lower P5 / upper G5 on the road in principle. I think that USC should have some definable criteria the opponent has to meet, e.g., seating capacity, potential to sell out, distance from SC (how many of you will travel to Greenville to watch the game?), recruiting possibilities, etc.

Recall that we did play UCF in Orlando 6 years ago. And Alabama did play Dook in Durham 11 years ago (yes, that game was sort of a one-off paying homage to Wallace Wade, but please note that the Tide did not object in principle to the location).
Carolina fans could also step up and practically eliminate the home field ECU advantage. When I was a student, I recall us playing at Wake Forest....maybe late 80s or early 90s? Carolina fans swarmed Winston Salem and we had more fans than they did...by far.

I know we have had some rotten years lately, but our fans dont travel to away games like we used to. I also remember away game takeovers at UNC, GA Tech and NC State. We used to joke about it as students......there would be garnet and black everywhere. Even in years where we weren't really that good.

I dont like the @ECU game but if USC marketing and PR would step up and promote it to fans as a good away game option and Tanner would step up and send the entire Carolina Band, we could take over their stadium too.
 
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IMO, USC has enough juice to insist on OOC contracts with lower tier P5 and upper tier G5 schools such that it will not be an even home and home series. USC does not have enough juice to insist that all such games will be played at W-B.

I think the original agreement with ECU was a 5 game set, with 3 at W-B, 1 at BOA Charlotte, and 1 at Dowdy-Ficklen in Greenville.

I don't think USC can (nor should) patently refuse to play a lower P5 / upper G5 on the road in principle. I think that USC should have some definable criteria the opponent has to meet, e.g., seating capacity, potential to sell out, distance from SC (how many of you will travel to Greenville to watch the game?), recruiting possibilities, etc.

Recall that we did play UCF in Orlando 6 years ago. And Alabama did play Dook in Durham 11 years ago (yes, that game was sort of a one-off paying homage to Wallace Wade, but please note that the Tide did not object in principle to the location).

Great point. Alabama can go to Duke, but we can’t go to East Carolina.

If ECU is so beneath us, like some of you suggest, we shouldn’t have a problem stomping a mud hole in them by 50 like Alabama did at Duke.

Some of you have grand illusions of going into Florida and Georgia to win ball games and yet you’re mad we have a game scheduled at East Carolina? I also don’t want to hear any of you whine about the out of conference schedule when you want everyone to play at Williams Brice. Of course some of you want to see cream puff after cream puff and beat the conference drum. I’d rather see us have a pair of balls and schedule some games like Georgia Tech, Miami and Va Tech....which we’ve done. Do you REALLY enjoy watching us pound Kent State by 70? Did it REALLY help us that season?

It’s also a great opportunity for some of our fans in Eastern North Carolina and Virginia (yes they exist) to see a game much closer to home. I know living in the upstate it’s nice every now and then to catch the Gamecocks without the 3 hour round trip.
 
I love the idea of beating a mid-level opponent on the road. There is something to gain - more home dates against harder opponents (or a sure-fire guarantee game). And it's not like we're in the NC hunt, but playing some of those dates on the road helps with team perception and how you get placed. In the 12-team playoff, I'll bet playing tougher out-of-conference road games will play into the equation of who gets to go. And you don't want to get too tough - ECU is about right.
 
I remember when ECU used to kick our butts in the 1990s. 91, 92, 94 and 96.
As do I. Witnessed a couple of those myself. This is a game we should win, no matter the location. None of us scheduled this game at Captain Jack Sparrow’s lair, and there’s no need to complain about it. Win anyway 🤙🏼🐔
 
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USC should win this game. More talent. Mike Houston basically had to burn that program to the ground and start over when he took over. But they will be better this year than last. Houston is an excellent coach. I venture to say that if he had stayed at JMU he would have been a major candidate for many of the job openings last year. And probably would have been a leading candidate at USC. A shame that he wasn't, no matter the record as he rebuilds ECU.
 
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