It's just one person's opinion, but the best football rivalry in this state will resume in Carter-Finley Stadium at noon Saturday when East Carolina and N.C. State get after each other for the 26th time.

As traditional rivalries go, it's still an infant. The winner doesn't get to stake claim to an oak bucket dating to Teddy Roosevelt's administration (or earlier), or a victory bell mounted on a funky little wagon, or anything else that equates to tangible evidence of an important outcome. It's not even a conference game, probably never will be.

But State-ECU is big, has been almost from the start, and whether Pirate fans admit it or not, most of the credit for the fun goes to the Wolfpack.

That's because State gave ECU a chance to prove itself in football when most other ACC members would not.

Granted, nothing more complex than a marriage of financial convenience hatched the series that began in 1970. State had recently built Carter Stadium and was anxious to pay off its construction debt as quickly as possible. ECU was the perfect cheap date -- close by, affordable, deep in fans and willing to play in Raleigh at a moment's notice.

What's more, ECU didn't so much as ask State to make the ride to Greenville for many years.

"They want our fans in town spending money and a game they see as an easy win," former ECU coach Sonny Randle said. "We want a chance to show folks we can play with ACC teams. It's a swap off."

As expected, State, en route to a modest 3-7-1 record, won the first game with ease 23-6.

But a year later, with everyone expecting a similar outcome, Randle's team won 31-15. That Wolfpack team (3-8) wasn't very good, either. But it didn't matter to ECU fans. A road win over an ACC team had been recorded, and the future seemed to hold endless possibilities.

And by that time, which was long before big television money, State was hooked on the gate income.

When State won a laugher, 57-8, to open the 1973 season, tickets were impossible to find. So were motel rooms in the Triangle. A good game had become such good business that North Carolina saw reason to join the feeding frenzy. A few weeks after the staggering loss at State, Randle's team went to Carolina and lost 28-27 in front of yet another full house.

By the mid-1970s, the Pirates were referred to by ACC schools as the regional "meal ticket." Their fans arrived in droves, provided a huge local economic infusion and still were in no position to demand return games.

"They may hate us, but they need us," then-ECU coach Pat Dye said.

In exchange for the commerce, the Pirates won enough of those games to establish themselves as a legitimate Division I-A program. The final turning point came in 1991, when ECU defeated State in a memorable Peach Bowl game that set an attendance record, virtually saved the Peach Bowl from financial ruin and ended with the 11-1 Pirates at No. 9 in the final Associated Press poll.

None of that could have happened without State's willingness to participate in what both sides fully understood was a no-win predicament for the Wolfpack.

State needed the money, and ECU needed the opportunity. But State just as easily could have said "no" to that first gamble in 1970 and gone elsewhere for a non-league game. In retrospect, the easy Wolfpack win that day probably was the best thing that ever happened to ECU football. Had the Pirates pulled off what would have been perceived as an embarrassing upset, there might have never been a 1971 meeting, much less the games beyond.

The impact of those early State-ECU games on regional football interest was immeasurable. That's why the game in Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday will be among the most emotional played anywhere in the nation. It's rivalry for the sheer sake of rivalry. And sure, State fans probably would prefer a win over North Carolina to a win over ECU. But that's not the lone measure of a true rivalry. Many State fans still can stomach a loss to Carolina much easier than a loss to the Pirates.

But it has also reached the point that it works the other way, too. There will be a lot of ECU fans who find a way to score a ticket tomorrow. Ask them about a big win, and they'll likely say Virginia Tech or West Virginia. But ask them which game they do not, under any circumstances, care to lose, and that response would be State.

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