Got this off Boneyard Banter after being keyed into on Twitter. I didn't think it was possible, but somehow the shenanigans that went off are even worse than it originally appeared, if this is valid. If so, I don't see a chance in hell we continue this series going forward. If we really were going out of our way to help them out before this all went down, all the rumored angst behind the scenes makes a lot more sense, especially given the financial hit we took.
Regarding the VA Tech game (long)
Fast forward to the hurricane. We communicate with their athletic administration that we want to cancel over the natural safety concerns. They respond by saying ok but let's wait another day to see what happens. Officially it's their call to make and to announce (it is their contracted home game) in a press release which they coordinate with us. But again protocol is they they take the lead just as we would for our home games.
Meanwhile unknown to them we've already decided we are not going to play and we make arrangements to send our equipment truck to Florida which they find out about on social media. Not only is that bad form, it may approache breach of contract on ECU's part. Of course their AD looks like a bad guy for complaining publicly as the narrative is ECU is acting in the best "safety interests of our student athletes". What is not as well reported is that their AD was working on hotel arrangements and practice facilities for our football team so that they could get out of Greenville have a place to go, play the game if possible and have a place to stay in preparation for traveling to our next game. In addition they were working with their contracted travel firm to secure a flight on their contracted charter carrier to fly our team out of Roanoke to Tampa. Most people don't know that their administration was trying to help facilitate all of this. Then they see on Twitter our equipment truck is on it's way to Florida before even ECU (violating proper protocol) releases to the press that we are canceling the game. (Tech officials clearly didn't have an appreciation for how broke our athletic department was which is why we were busing our kids on a 10+ hour road trip from Greenville to Tampa.)
Fast forward to our joint press release with NC State that we have scheduled a "make up game" at the end of the season. I'm read that Tech wanted a conditional game assuming they were in a position to qualify for their 26th straight bowl appearance. We of course wanted a sure thing so we did our deal with State as it was guaranteed to be played and they were paying more money. Again I'm told that Tech athletic officials read about this on social media and not directly from ECU.
Follow the link at your own peril. Boneyard Banter is a Sportswar site, so be prepared for full on TSL formatting if you go.
Update: There may be some validity to this whole thing. New ECU Athletic Director Jon Gilbert recently made public statements on his radio call-in show saying how vital it is to ECU that he works to repair the damaged relationship between both schools.
"We have talked and it's an important series," Gilbert said of communicating with the Hokies. "It's a series East Carolina has had back to 1956. The teams go back and forth. We travel well there. They travel well here. It's a good regional game. I think it is important. We want to be good partners and we want to make it work."
The contract for the series reportedly calls for a fee of $250,000 if a school cancels the game on the other. It remains to be seen how exactly the Hokies will pursue collecting such a payment moving forward, or if the scheduled 2018 game in Blacksburg will be postponed and rescheduled to a later date.
"I certainly think we've got to continue the dialogue and make sure they understand we see it as a valuable series and a valuable partner," Gilbert said, "and we want that to continue to play a part in our schedule."
Warning: If you do follow this link, don't read the comments. They will make your blood boil.
Update 2: All future games in Greenville have been canceled.
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