East Carolina defeated Tulsa, 49-32, Friday night, perfectly justifying Las Vegas’s 17-point spread and exemplifying the Pirates’ season. ECU’s Shane Carden was his productive self, throwing for 338 yards and four touchdowns on 28-for-42 yards passing, while his favorite target, the FBS career receptions record holder, Justin Hardy, finished with nine receptions for 88 yards and a touchdown.

Meanwhile the Pirate defense stayed true to the status-quo, looking shaky but bearable given the offensive output — 388 yards on the evening, 199 through the air.

The victory did little to neither reduce the prowess of the Carden-Hardy combination nor diminish the doubt in the inconsistent ECU secondary, and both factors make it more confusing for Las Vegas and more intriguing for fans involved with ECU’s next matchup with Central Florida (8-3, 6-1).

ECU’s conference title hopes remain slim at best, while UCF’s bid for back-to-back American championships in its first two seasons ride on the hope of a Memphis home loss to Connecticut.

However, more is at stake for both these teams than a conference title.

Big Xll representatives TCU (10-1) and Baylor (9-1) sit in anxious hopefulness on the outside-looking-in, while the college football playoff selection committee nears its final decision on the final four for the playoff. And it’s not for lack of success among the two programs. Both teams deserve their shot at the national title run as much as Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, Mississippi State and Ohio State, but unlike those five teams, the Horned Frogs’ and Bears’ conference lacks a title game because the Big Xll features only 10 teams.

A popular notion among college football insiders is the emphasis on rewarding teams with conference championship game wins under their belts.

If that popular notion holds true, to prove its national relevance, you can be sure the Big Xll will be looking to add at least two teams in the near future.

While athletic directors, coaches and players alike will focus on solely results for single-season purposes and intrinsic values, contests between schools such as Memphis, Houston, UCF, ECU, Cincinnati and UConn bear more weight than folks close to the program may realize.

Programs such as UConn, Memphis and Cincinnati may be able to carry athletic prestige with basketball alone, but conference officials may be watching the result of football contests like Thursday’s ECU-UCF game closely.

UCF holds the advantage in terms of recent success on the national stage, but a statement ECU victory at home in Carden and Hardy’s senior day could very well make the debate for which teams deserve increased opportunities very interesting.

While schools outside of the American such as Colorado State, Boise State and BYU are receiving well-deserved glances, rest assured, plenty of eyes are focused on the American’s marquee matchups.

If ECU wants to make a statement, Thursday night prime time is a good place to start.