No bull, Bucs' bowl foe is USF

From staff and electronic reports
©2006 Bonesville.net. All rights reserved.

East Carolina's opponent in the inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl will be South Florida, ECU's athletic media relations office announced late Sunday.

The Pirates and Bulls will meet at Legion Field in Birmingham, AL, at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 23. The game will be televised by ESPN2.

"We are certainly looking forward to having the opportunity and challenge of playing an opponent the caliber of USF," ECU Head Coach Skip Holtz stated in a release issued by the school's athletic media relation office. "We have great respect for their program, especially the way they compete at a high level in a BCS conference like the Big East. This matchup will also present us with another chance to see how far we have progressed as a program in two years."

This will mark the fourth meeting between the two former Conference USA rivals, with USF picking up wins from 2002-04 for a 3-0 series advantage.

The Pirates (7-5, 5-3 Conference USA) will be making their 13th bowl appearance, their seventh since 1990. ECU's most recent postseason outing came against Marshall in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.

East Carolina is 7-5 all-time in its bowl history.

The Bulls (8-4, 4-3 Big East) are headed to their second consecutive bowl closing out the regular season with a 24-19 road win over nationally-ranked West Virginia.

USF started playing football in 1997 and moved to Division I-A in 2001. The Bulls joined the Big East Conference in 2005 and played in their first-ever bowl game that same season, losing to N.C. State, 14-0, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

PAGE UPDATED 02/23/07 11:32 AM.

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