Governor Roy Cooper is asking his counterpart in Virginia to encourage Virginia Tech officials to work on a fix involving the dispute with East Carolina University.

Virginia Tech has canceled football games in Greenville for 2019, 2023 and 2025, in apparent retaliation for ECU canceling its trip to Blacksburg last year as Hurricane Florence approached the coast.

Cooper said he called Governor Ralph Northam and asked him to encourage Tech officials to work on a resolution "that keeps this important rivalry alive without unfairly penalizing ECU for the storm".

"As North Carolina prepared for Hurricane Florence, I urged residents across our state to stay off the roads and prepare for this devastating storm. Canceling a major college football game means lost revenue, but the safety of players and fans should come first. ECU made the responsible decision and this dispute should be resolved without making Pirate Nation bear additional costs from Hurricane Florence," said Cooper.

Hurricane Florence killed 43 people in the state and caused an estimated $17 billion in damage.