East Carolina Cancels 2020 Trip to Virginia Tech

As expected, East Carolina has cancelled a 2020 trip to Lane Stadium in favor of a game in Atlanta with Georgia State.  This comes as a response to Virginia Tech canceling future road trips to ECU, including one in 2019, which led to the Hokies scheduling a second FCS game against Rhode Island.

With the cancellation of the East Carolina game, Virginia Tech’s 2020 home schedule now looks like this…

Liberty, September 5
Penn State, September 12
Boston College, TBD
Georgia Tech, TBD
Miami, TBD
Virginia, TBD

Virginia Tech isn’t scheduled to play an FCS opponent in 2020, and if the athletic department wants to play seven home games in that season, they may have no choice but to go the FCS route on such short notice.  Whit Babcock has been trying to schedule as few FCS opponents as possible for the upcoming seasons.  Here are Tech’s upcoming games with FCS opponents…

2019: Furman and Rhode Island
2020: None
2021: Richmond
2022: None
2023: None
2024: None
2025: None
2026: VMI
2027: None
2028: None
2029: None
2030: None

Virginia Tech is also scheduled to host East Carolina in 2022 and 2024.  With six home games on the schedule for 2020, it’s also possible that Tech could choose to play a road game next season in exchange for a return game in Lane Stadium for a later year, perhaps as a replacement for the Pirates in 2022.

Click here for our future schedules page.

Update

The original report may not be quite accurate, as Michael Niziolek reports below.

Still, it appears that the game VT-ECU is still likely be canceled.  The Pirates currently have five non-conference games scheduled, including a matchup with Norfolk State on September 19.  It appears to be only a matter of time before their meeting with the Hokies is officially canceled.

33 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Don’t cancel, just schedule another opponent for the same day…they can co w up and watch the game.

  2. Weaver (RIP) screwd the pooch with this contract. Easy U is going to hold on as long as possible, before officially canceling, so we will have to do a last minute shuffle like last year. I’m sure Whit is already working on plan B & C

  3. Rest assured ECU will 1) have a game lined up, and 2) wait until the last minute to announce the cancellation of the trips to Blacksburg.

    I think they are spiteful people.

  4. Good grief, more of this with ECU? How about just get rid of all their games as soon as legally possible, they are way more trouble than a crappy game with ECU is worth. We never gain anything by beating them anyway, and an upset loss to them is a disaster.

    1. So what is the clue? Bad situation all the way around. Both schools should just announce that they’ve cancelled the series and move on.

  5. I was anb ECU fan for a long time and loved our trips to Greenville.

    No more. Be done with them once and for all. They need us a LOT more than we need them.

  6. do they pay us to get out of each game they cancel? if not then snip little peg-legs off.

    let them schedule small, less talented opponents and suffer the economic consequences of being poor. nothing reminds you of bad leadership like dwindling athletic department funds, poor attendance, and watching previous opponents grow, succeed, and have bigger war chests. (remember when we used to look jealously over the acc fence and wish we were there?)

    they started this – lousy interim administration or not – and should be responsible. maybe they take their mascot to seriously and think they are outside the rules (law). if the ncaa doesn’t have enforceable rules governing this type of “random game cancellation garbage” it is another disservice to “its colleges” that make up college football. such a sad, monopolistic organization.

    Dr Sands needs to step up to the plate among college presidents and in ncaa (either he or our rep) and demand scheduling order, proper contractural procedure, proper cancellation protocall, and compensation/penalties in accordance with recognized, proper contract law.

    it’s hard to deal with “easy-cancellation-u” by “out-recruiting” them in the state of nc when we recruit a higher calibre (athletic ability and ‘stars’) of student-athlete than they do. yes, we need to dominate recruiting in their state – nc’s been very good to us in last 5 years – but measuring our recruiting success versus “easy-cancel’s” is like comparing apples to tomatoes.

    if all this “eye-for-an-eye” game cancelling is political and pride: then mutually cancel what’s left of the series NOW and move on. we’ll do it “mutually” to maintain the high road (that “easy cancel” can’t sniff) of a “world class university” we can set our sights on valued opponents who will draw crowds to Lane-Worsham.

    Those MAC schools and non-P5 midwestern schools (ie: Troy, Ark St, Memphis) in a 2 home for 1 away will do as a minimum; maybe a high-profile at a neutral site (Ravens Stadium, hotlanta, Charlotte – not ‘Skins FedEx, please) or one in a major recruiting area we want to penetrate.

    Go Hokies!

  7. Don’t like to see things end on a sour note, but in my opinion, we had scheduled too many games with them anyway. Once every four or five years would have been enough, then get someone new to do a home and home with.

  8. I have a number of family members and fans of ecu and they are extremely angry at Tech for our cancellation. They believe we did it only because they canceled during the storm. Nothing I can say changes their minds so I am with a number of the comments below, i. e. glad to be done with them. Without a real conference, I think they are in for a long road to any kind of meaningful schedule. Good luck to them and goodbye.

  9. We could schedule a nonconference game an ACC Coastal team such as State that we don’t play often

  10. Agree with all previous comments. But how about that GS stadium? That seat layout is weird.

    1. As hokiepro said, it’s Turner Field. They actually did a pretty good job with it considering their money limitations and the architecture. They still use the concourse from the baseball part so it’s not bad.

  11. Is playing the Rhode Islands of the world a better option than playing ECU?

    Clearly, ECU handled last year’s situation badly during turnover in leadership. However, not sure it’s in our best interests to ignore them entirely moving forward. They have been a good opponent over the years.

  12. Well. The principal behind our decision was sound and I support Team Whit.

    But contrary to popular belief…..I still don’t think this is good for Tech’s intentional relationship with the state of NorthCarolina and our bid to lock up the state. Seems everyone wants to throw away the Pirates and fault ECU as a whole but this was a gaff by incompetent ECU Administrators much like many gaffs we seen by Maryland, Miami, or Tennessee administrators. What’s ruined is a good border-rivalry between two good brands of football and one less game where the Hokies get to live and dominate the minds of North Carolinians. We seem not to respect ECU but they are a marketable program with much more media buzz about them and arguably play a better brand of football than cellar dweller Wake Forest or Louisville…..IMO.

    1. You understand they are doing all they can to get replacements and then cancel our games putting us behind the 8-ball each season to make up those games. I want to cancel the series altogether and while I don’t disagree with some of you on the field comments on ECU, I would not speak with them again until the entire admin changes. No problem with them on the field or even in the stands but their admin overrides all of that and for me it is not even close.

    2. Dominate? I would not call our play domination except the last couple of years.

  13. Can’t we cancel the remaining games so we are not left at the mercy of flipping ECU? We should not get on any field, court, or track with those folks home or away ever again.

    1. I agree we should cancel home games w/them if we can without monetary & legal consequences because it appears they are waiting until they have game locked in to cancel. It was a good series while it lasted.

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