Construction has ECU poised to be a trendy pick if conferences expand

Change is always occurring within the operations of any university and the changes taking place at ECU’s athletic complexes are evident.

Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is going through its second stadium expansion in the past 15 years. In 1998, the stadium added an upper deck, which expanded the stadium to 43,000 seats.

Now, the stadium’s scoreboard has been removed and construction workers from T.A. Loving Construction Company are bowling in the stadium, expanding the stadium’s maximum capacity to approximately 50,000 seats.

Aside from the expansion of the football stadium, there is also construction happening on the opposite end of the athletic complex at the softball field and the rest of the Olympic Sports Complex.

The softball team has been one of the most successful athletic teams at ECU that no one ever hears about. The Lady Pirates softball team has won 77 games the past two seasons and won 40 games in five out of the last six years. Their new stadium facility is under construction, which will include a new 1,000-seat stadium that is designed to mirror the baseball team’s state of the art facility, Clark-LeClair Stadium.

Plans are also in the works for a new soccer and track facility to complete the Olympic Sports Complex, and in the distant future, a practice basketball facility.

This may be the Pirates’ most pressing need as the volleyball team, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams all share one gym with each other and Physical Education classes along with concerts and graduations. ECU is in a small group of Division I schools that are in this situation with their basketball programs.

Times are changing fast at ECU and all these improvements may be coming at a perfect time.

Conference realigning is a common conversation around the local restaurants, Internet message boards, gyms and even on campus. The ultimate goal for any football team is to be a member of the Bowl Championship Series. Eligibility for the BCS requires a university to be in either the Big Ten, ACC, Big XII, PAC 10, SEC or the Big East, and if the rest of the teams want to join this exclusive club for one season, they must finish in the top 12 of the BCS rankings at the end of the year to earn a spot in one of the BCS bowl games.

Aside from its advantages for football, being in one of the BCS conferences would increase revenue for all athletic programs and the university.

There is speculation that some of these six BCS conferences will be looking to expand at the end of the 2010 athletic year and the Pirates are as attractive as they have ever been.

The Big East and Big Ten are the focuses of the upcoming possible expansion. The former only has eight teams in its football conference, the lowest of any BCS conference, while the latter has expressed interest in expanding from 11 teams to 12 so that the conference can have a conference championship game.

I know, the Big Ten having 11 teams and maybe even 12 is confusing.

The Pirates won conference championships in football in 2008 and 2009, 2008 in soccer and 2009 in baseball. The football team played a record six games this season that were televised by ESPN and the baseball team even made it to the bright lights of ESPN, playing on national television in the Chapel Hill Super Regional.

This exposure is crucial to the university and will play a vital role in whether the Pirates make a move to a new conference.

On national television, the Pirates have proven that they can compete with teams that are in BCS conference such as Arkansas, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and UNC-Chapel Hill. The fans have shown their commitment to the university, showing up in record numbers to football and baseball games.

In a time where the football team has a new coaching staff and most of the athletic complex is undergoing facelifts, it is more important than ever for the fan base and student body to remain behind their school and support them more than ever and see what the future has for ECU.

I know 10 years ago, I never would have thought Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium would hold 50,000 fans. Anything can happen when you dream.

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.