The South Carolina Gamecocks have canceled their 2019 football game at the East Carolina Pirates, according to ECU athletics director Jeff Compher.
247Sports reported the news on Tuesday after Compher made the announcement on Pirate Radio 1250/930.
“We did hear that South Carolina will not be coming here in ’19,” Compher said. “They have a game in Charlotte and that limited the number of home games they had, so they elected not to come here.”
The 2019 game is a part of a five-game series the two schools agreed to back in 2014. The agreement called for games at South Carolina in 2014, 2016, and 2020 and games at East Carolina in 2019 and 2021.
According to a copy of the contract obtained by FBSchedules.com in 2015, there is a $1 million cancellation fee for each game. Therefore, the Gamecocks will owe the Pirates that fee for backing out of the 2019 contest.
Back in 2015, South Carolina agreed to play North Carolina at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte in 2019 and 2023. If the Gamecocks played at ECU in 2019 as well, that would leave them with only six home games whereas most most Power Five schools prefer seven.
East Carolina now has an opening on their 2019 non-conference slate. The Pirates are scheduled to travel to NC State (Aug. 31) and Old Dominion (Sept. 28) and host Virginia Tech (Sept. 21) that season.
South Carolina is scheduled to open the 2019 season vs. UNC in Charlotte and later hosts Charleston Southern (Nov. 23) and Clemson (Nov. 30).
It’s expected that both ECU and South Carolina will add home games vs. middle-to-lower level FBS opponents.
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