Blackout? What's the point?

Whenever it comes to a big game, college football programs across America reach into their bag of tricks to find a way to motivate their players and fans.

In most cases, athletic administrators or fans try and organize some form of a color "out." This act of organizing all of their fans to wear one color has been successful at some schools including Penn State's white outs and blackouts by Georgia, Purdue, Colorado, Utah and Vanderbilt.

One thing all of these black or white outs have in common is the players emerge from the tunnel and run onto the field in black or white uniforms.

ECU head coach Skip Holtz has stated that when the Pirate ship's doors are lowered and the team runs through the purple and white smoke onto Bagwell Field while "Purple Haze" blares over the loud speaker Thursday night, they will not be in black uniforms.

ECU has tried twice in the past two years to go the original way and do a purple out. How many times have you ever heard of a college football game being deemed a purple out?

Many teams in college football wear purple but none have had any substantial success when it comes to having a purple out.

ECU's attempts at "outs" have been weak thus far. With failed past attempts at games versus UCF this year and Memphis last year, it is clear that "outs" have not been advertised appropriately. I fear that one day when ECU will be broadcasted on ESPN from California to Florida for the whole world to see, their attempt at a blackout will be another unsuccessful attempt.

While I am a huge supporter of fans wearing whatever they want to games, as long as it has something to do with ECU and does not support any other universities in North Carolina, a successful purple out would look very nice on national television. ESPN has given ECU the privilege of being the first non-BCS team to play in the primetime Thursday night this year and we are obviously going to gain exposure on a national level.

Is urging fans to wear black when the team is coming out in purple the right way to do this?

When people tune in on Thursday and have no clue what ECU is, will they be confused by the amount of black shirts in the stands? I would be.

As Sports Illustrated sports writer Stewart Mandel wrote in reference to "blackouts," "Two words of advice to all the other schools trying to mimic it: Just stop. Seriously. The only tangible effect of Georgia's much-hyped 'blackout' was to turn Sanford Stadium into exactly what that Alabama strength coach prophesized: A funeral."

Since I became an ECU fan in December of 1988, the colors I wore to support my favorite school have always been purple and gold.

So on the day of ECU's biggest nationally televised home game, I am faced with the decision of whether I should cave under the peer pressure to try and blackout Dowdy Ficklen Stadium, or if I should wear my traditional game day attire.

When I wake up on Thursday, I will put on one of my hundreds of purple ECU shirts, sweatshirts or jackets and enter Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium ready to cheer on the Pirates and I expect that much of the Pirate Nation will do the same.

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.