When WVU was fairly decent under Rodriguez, I know quite a few WVU fans who "feared" seeing ECU as an OOC opponent........feared that was one OOC opponent that could pull the upset over them.......respected ECU program.
ECU and UCF would have been great additions to the old BE,.....at least in FB......and may have postponed the departure of WVU, Pitt, and Louisville. If there was ever a catalyst to the departure of those 3 was the so called theory that Villanova could "improve the status of the FB conference.........really BIG time thinking by BE administrators in Providence.
My fear is that if, in my wildest imagination, there is ever any talk of further expansion of the P5, or realignment of the P5 into P4 conferences, we'll see the possibility of UCF. ECU. Cincinnati. and/or Houston being poached from the AAC before UConn.
The old BE, post Miami, Virginia Tech, and BG had three decent teams.....WVU, Cincinnati, and Louisville. The rest were mediocre at best, and no better than the current ECU, UCF, or Houston teams.