East Carolina and Marshall have been granted a waiver by the NCAA to play their season opener on Aug. 29 -- a week earlier than originally scheduled -- at ECU's Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium as a tribute to the 75 people who died almost 50 years ago in the Marshall plane crash. Jon Gilbert, East Carolina's athletic director, said ESPN has committed to televising the 50th anniversary game on one of its networks. "We plan to invite family members of the players from both teams who played in the game," Gilbert told ESPN. "Both programs will forever be linked, and we are honored to recognize the 75 people who lost their lives." A chartered jet carrying the Marshall team was returning from a game at East Carolina on Nov. 14, 1970, when it crashed into a hillside 2 miles from the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia. All 75 people onboard were killed in the worst disaster in American sports history. Included in the waiver letter submitted to the NCAA by East Carolina, in...