A Conference USA rivalry will be renewed between Marshall and East Carolina. The two schools have reportedly lined up a future home-and-home series for 2023 and 2025, according to a report from FBSchedules.com.
East Carolina of the American Athletic Conference will host the Thundering Herd on Sep. 9, 2023. Marshall will host the return trip two years later on Sep. 13, 2025. The two schools have not played each other since 2013 before East Carolina left Conference USA to join the AAC. ECU leads the all-time series, 10-5, but they have met two times by the time this home-and-home series is slated to be played. Previously, the schools agreed to another home-and-home scheduling arrangement that will be played in 2020 (at ECU) and 2021 (at Marshall).
Games between two non-power conferences may not seem all that attractive to common fans, but the importance riding on these outcomes can carry some significance. A victory by either team gives their respective conference a win against another nonpower conference it may be jockeying with for a spot in the New Years Six bowl lineup. Ultimately, it may not carry enough weight by the end of the season if one team, like UCF, happens to be the clear favorite, but in the event multiple conferences have champions in the running for the exclusive spot in the big money bowls at the end of the year, any little piece of bragging rights a conference can stack up against another conference could become valuable.
In theory, at least.
Marshall currently has other future games scheduled against former conference rivals. This fall the Herd will play former MAC opponent Miami Ohio, and Ohio is on deck for a home-and-home series in 2019 and 2020. Marshall will also face Cincinnati (formerly of Conference USA) in 2019. East Carolina has no other former Conference USA rivals on the future schedule at this point aside from Marshall.
