The East Carolina Pirates are a college football team that represents East Carolina University. The team is a member of the American Athletic Conference, which is in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Mike Houston is the head coach.

Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium is the on-campus football facility at East Carolina University for the East Carolina Pirates in Greenville, North Carolina. The official capacity of the stadium is 51,000, tying it for the second largest college stadium in North Carolina. The record attendance for the stadium was on September 3, 2022, against North Carolina State University with 51,711 in attendance. The stadium is also the site of Spring Commencement exercises for the university. The field itself was commemorated as Bagwell Field in 1997.