Big 12 Basketball: Is East Carolina a viable candidate for expansion?

The East Carolina Pirates are a long shot for Big 12 basketball expansion, but that hasn’t stopped the program from aggressive self-promotion.

Since the Big 12 conference voted to allow commissioner Bob Bowlsby to interview schools as possible new members, many have expressed interest.

East Carolina has been one of the most enthusiastic in engaging the conference leadership. Their main twitter feed fired off a series of tweets in July highlighting some of their better qualities.

Looks like @ECUAthletics would be an excellent travel partner along with @WVUSports! pic.twitter.com/7FN5tKRS23
— East Carolina Pirates (@ECUAthletics) July 25, 2016

This was just one of many that made fans and pundits laugh. However, should we dismiss the third largest university in North Carolina so quickly? Leaving aside political pandering from North Carolina’s statesmen, what do the Pirates bring to the conversation?

ECU was established in 1907 in Greenville, NC. Today the university has nearly 29,000 total students in attendance. Greenville is the 10th largest city in the state at just over 90,000. A smaller city, it is nontheless home to a top-50 media market, right behind Milwaukee according to this list.

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If the Big 12 wants a West Virginia travel partner, East Carolina might make sense at just eight hours away via the highway. The Pirates certainly have the geography to compete with many of the other schools.

The college isn’t particularly renowned overall, but several services have rated their business and medical schools highly in recent years. They have been investing heavily in improvements over time, with no end in sight.

An extra 30 or so million from Big 12 membership would only help the school catch up with the current members.

On the hardwood, the program competes in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, which holds just 8,000 people. Membership could push arena expansion to the top of the project list.

Former Tar Heel Jeff Lebo currently leads the program. In six years with the Pirates, he has record of 99-100. The Pirates finished tied for ninth in the American Conference last year, but they return almost all their production from a year ago and could move up a few spots. There is definitely some potential for East Carolina basketball.

I really like ECU for the Big 12. They are a good, if not great school, in a prime location on the East Coast. They are close enough to West Virginia that the school would make a fine travel partner as well.

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The Pirates are also very proud of their position as one of the most passionate of any non-Power Five athletic programs. I don’t think that East Carolina is an option over Memphis, Cincy, Houston, or even the Mountain West competitors, but they certainly possess a lot of upside as an outside-the-box member.

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