All we hear about nowadays are how non-playoff bowl games are “meaningless” and how more and more teams are going to start opting out of them, but one team I’d strongly suggest never join that club is East Carolina, and its upcoming Military Bowl matchup alone can tell the story as to why this game still means something.
Later this month we’ll see the (8-4) East Carolina Pirates take on the ACC's Pittsburgh Panthers (8-4) in the Annapolis affair, and if they win—which they very well could—they will have capped off their best season since 2013, and what is already their third in the last four years to hit eight wins (the first two concluded with bowl victories of their own).
Meanwhile, the ACC is currently stewing in its darkest hour, one where Clemson is mediocre, both Florida State and Virginia Tech are in shambles, and its champion is five-loss Duke. While the SEC and Big Ten continue to parade schools into the College Football Playoff, the ACC was only able to send Miami to the CFP this season.
So let’s connect these dots, shall we? A North Carolina-based Group of 5 school is in the middle of a promising chapter for its football program, and with it comes the potential to beat one of the mightier powers from a reeling conference that has roots in —say it with me now— North Carolina.
I know conference realignment is something that’s lost much of its predictability and geographical relevance in recent memory, but I can’t think of a collaboration more ideal than ECU and the ACC with how both parties sit today. If a win in the 2025 Military Bowl can bring that conversation to the table, then I’m all-in on the Pirates giving Pitt its fifth loss for this holiday season.