The East Carolina–Marshall football rivalry is a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

rivalry game between two

public universities A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national university ...

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university, public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a Normal school, teacher training school, East ...

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

and the

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges ...

Thundering Herd. The current winner is East Carolina, who won, 42–38, on September 18, 2021. East Carolina leads the all-time series, 11–5.

History

East Carolina and Marshall have a "friendly" rivalry with one another. They are emotionally bonded by the tragic

plane crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

on November 14, 1970. The Thundering Herd were coming back from

Greenville, North Carolina Greenville is the county seat of and the most populous city in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States; the principal city of the Greenville metropolitan area; and the 12th-most populous city in North Carolina. Greenville is the health, en ...

after a 17–14 loss to the Pirates when their plane crashed near

Ceredo, West Virginia Ceredo is a town in Wayne County, West Virginia, United States, situated along the Ohio River. The population was 1,450 at the 2010 census. Ceredo is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 200 ...

. East Carolina joined

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

(C-USA) in 1997 as an affiliate member for football only until the 2001 season as the school moved up to full membership. When three teams from the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

moved to the ACC, the Big East looked for new members for their conference and invited five schools from C-USA to join their conference. Then C-USA added six other teams, including Marshall from the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the t ...

. The six new teams brought C-USA to twelve teams in which the conference can split into divisions and host a

Conference USA Football Championship Game The Conference USA Football Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the season champion of Conference USA (C-USA) since 2005. History The championship game from 2005–2021, showcased the C-USA East Division regul ...

. East Carolina and Marshall were placed in the "East" division and played annually since then. East Carolina and Marshall's most memorable games was the

2001 GMAC Bowl The 2001 GMAC Bowl, a college football bowl game held on December 19 at Ladd–Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, pitted the Marshall Thundering Herd, then of the Mid-American Conference, against the East Carolina Pirates from Conference USA. Th ...

as they combined for a bowl record, 125 points, as Marshall overcame a 30-point deficit to beat East Carolina 64–61 in double overtime. With East Carolina's move to the American Athletic Conference in 2014, the annual meeting with Marshall that had taken place since 2005 was discontinued. On April 3, 2014, both schools announced that the two teams will meet again for a home and home series in 2020 and 2021. East Carolina will host Marshall at

Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium is the on-campus football facility at East Carolina University for the East Carolina Pirates in Greenville, North Carolina. The official capacity of the stadium is 51,000, tying it for the second largest college stadium ...

on September 5, 2020. Marshall will host the second game of the series at

Joan C. Edwards Stadium Joan C. Edwards Stadium, formerly Marshall University Stadium, is a football stadium located on the campus of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. It can hold 38,227 spectators and includes twenty deluxe, indoor suites ...

on September 11, 2021. East Carolina leads the all-time record over Marshall 10–5.

Game results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:East Carolina-Marshall football rivalry College football rivalries in the United States East Carolina Pirates football Marshall Thundering Herd football

History

Game results

See also

References