On Tuesday, when the College Football Playoff selection committee releases its first set of rankings, the Pirates are the best bet to be the top-ranked team in what is commonly known as the Group of Five — the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences outside the Big 5 (the A.C.C., the SEC, the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the Pacific-12). This distinction will be more than trivia: The top-ranked conference champion from the Group of Five is guaranteed a spot in one of the six playoff-affiliated bowls.

That place would actually be a consolation prize for the American, which includes some football programs from the old Big East that were previously guaranteed a spot in a Bowl Championship Series bowl game.

“I don’t know if it’s guerrilla warfare, but we know we’re challengers,” said Mike Aresco, the commissioner of the American Athletic Conference. “I think we have to have a bit of a chip on our shoulder.”

Like its new conference, East Carolina, formerly of Conference USA, styles itself both proudly apart from and defiantly as good as any team in the Big 5. But it would gladly remove the chip from its shoulder in exchange for entrance into the elite; both its current athletic director and a former one said the university would not hesitate to join the A.C.C.

East Carolina is turning realignment on its head. Despite being a program left behind, it is poised to make the loudest statement in the 50-year history of its football team, which has featured players like the running backs Earnest Byner and Chris Johnson, quarterback David Garrard and fullback Vonta Leach.

“Building towards the upper echelon schools was always what East Carolina was about,” Byner said, “and Ruffin has taken it that way.”