When you remember how East Carolina began the 2008 football season, it's hard to imagine the Pirates being 13-point underdogs against anybody in Conference USA.

West Virginia fans would like to forget it. The Pirates opened the season with an emotional victory over Virginia Tech in Charlotte on a late blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown. To show it might not have been a fluke, the Pirates unleashed a purple swarm over the Mountaineers at home, winning 24-3.

At that point, the Pirates (8-4) were expected to be where they are this week, playing for the C-USA championship game.

But getting there was not always fun, as they suffered through a number of injuries and a three-game losing streak. They needed to go overtime to win two consecutive games and were humbled at Southern Mississippi.

At noon EST Saturday, the Pirates will face one of their biggest tasks of the season, defending against the mid-major equivalent of "the greatest show on turf" in Tulsa. They do so at H.A. Chapman Stadium, where the Golden Hurricane has won 10 in a row and usually scores at will.

ECU coach Skip Holtz doesn't need father Lou's talent in fluffing up the opposition. He just lets the numbers do the talking.

"They've scored 81 touchdowns, which I thought was a misprint when I first read it," Holtz said. "We've scored 33 and they've scored 81. To put it in perspective, [ECU kicker] Ben Hartman has kicked 79 PATs in his career, and he's a junior. They've scored 81 touchdowns this year alone.

"This is kind of a David and Goliath story when I sit down and look at Tulsa's numbers and what they're doing right now."

Tulsa (10-2) is playing in the third of four C-USA title games since the conference's radical realignment of 2005. It won the host designation with the best conference record (7-1 vs. ECU's 6-2).

That setup is unlikely to change anytime soon. With the league's spread-out geography and generally smaller fan bases, a neutral-site game is probably out of the question.

"To identify a neutral site that we could ensure the energy and atmosphere we wanted for a championship event is difficult in any sport," commissioner Britton Banowsky told the Tulsa World. "It's certainly difficult in football. We knew that if we let the season play out and let the team with the best record host the event, there would be excitement, enthusiasm and we'd sell a bunch of tickets. We'd create the type of atmosphere on a stage in which these games should be played - in front of a large audience and with energy."

The Golden Hurricane may be the most accomplished C-USA athletic program in the post-realignment era - in addition to the 2005 football championship, the school owns 11 other postseason titles in eight different sports. Football-wise, Tulsa has lost only eight conference games in four seasons, including the 2007 title game.

Tulsa coach Todd Graham and university officials are excited to play the host role for the first time (the 2005 and 2007 games were played at Central Florida). The 30,000-seat Chapman Stadium underwent a major renovation before this season, part of serious campus-wide improvements.

When you remember how East Carolina began the 2008 football season, it's hard to imagine the Pirates being 13-point underdogs against anybody in Conference USA.

West Virginia fans would like to forget it. The Pirates opened the season with an emotional victory over Virginia Tech in Charlotte on a late blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown. To show it might not have been a fluke, the Pirates unleashed a purple swarm over the Mountaineers at home, winning 24-3.

At that point, the Pirates (8-4) were expected to be where they are this week, playing for the C-USA championship game.

But getting there was not always fun, as they suffered through a number of injuries and a three-game losing streak. They needed to go overtime to win two consecutive games and were humbled at Southern Mississippi.

At noon EST Saturday, the Pirates will face one of their biggest tasks of the season, defending against the mid-major equivalent of "the greatest show on turf" in Tulsa. They do so at H.A. Chapman Stadium, where the Golden Hurricane has won 10 in a row and usually scores at will.

ECU coach Skip Holtz doesn't need father Lou's talent in fluffing up the opposition. He just lets the numbers do the talking.

"They've scored 81 touchdowns, which I thought was a misprint when I first read it," Holtz said. "We've scored 33 and they've scored 81. To put it in perspective, [ECU kicker] Ben Hartman has kicked 79 PATs in his career, and he's a junior. They've scored 81 touchdowns this year alone.

"This is kind of a David and Goliath story when I sit down and look at Tulsa's numbers and what they're doing right now."

Tulsa (10-2) is playing in the third of four C-USA title games since the conference's radical realignment of 2005. It won the host designation with the best conference record (7-1 vs. ECU's 6-2).

That setup is unlikely to change anytime soon. With the league's spread-out geography and generally smaller fan bases, a neutral-site game is probably out of the question.

"To identify a neutral site that we could ensure the energy and atmosphere we wanted for a championship event is difficult in any sport," commissioner Britton Banowsky told the Tulsa World. "It's certainly difficult in football. We knew that if we let the season play out and let the team with the best record host the event, there would be excitement, enthusiasm and we'd sell a bunch of tickets. We'd create the type of atmosphere on a stage in which these games should be played - in front of a large audience and with energy."

The Golden Hurricane may be the most accomplished C-USA athletic program in the post-realignment era - in addition to the 2005 football championship, the school owns 11 other postseason titles in eight different sports. Football-wise, Tulsa has lost only eight conference games in four seasons, including the 2007 title game.

Tulsa coach Todd Graham and university officials are excited to play the host role for the first time (the 2005 and 2007 games were played at Central Florida). The 30,000-seat Chapman Stadium underwent a major renovation before this season, part of serious campus-wide improvements.

"You can drive around on campus and look at just the six years I've been at this university and see the remarkable change that the administration brought here," Graham said. "From where our students live to all the different improvements we've made in facilities and being a top 100 academic institution in the country and competing at the highest level of intercollegiate sports ... it's not just football."

Conference USA has not had to surrender a bowl position since 2005, and that continued this season. The six guaranteed positions will be neatly filled by six teams.

The Liberty Bowl gets the first crack, presumably taking the league champion. The GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Ala., receives the second pick.

Two bowls have cemented their selections. The New Orleans Bowl took Southern Mississippi, which rallied from a 2-6 start to qualify for the postseason under new coach Larry Fedora. The Golden Eagles are expected to play the Sun Belt champion, which will be the winner of Saturday's Arkansas State-Troy game.

Rice, which won nine games for the first time since 1953, will remain in its home city of Houston to play in the Texas Bowl. C-USA's other games are the St. Petersburg Bowl and the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas.

Some year-end loose ends:

Reach Doug Smock at 348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.