Progress, yes; but HBCUs paid a price for it

[3rd Coast Tiger]

Very interesting article on ESPN's website as it recognizeds black history month....

Forty years ago, one could argue that black college football was as competitive as any played in the country. The same sort of debates about how the Negro Leagues stacked up against Major League Baseball could be had about black college football and the big-time university game. Awash with talent that segregation placed in their laps, historically black colleges and universities consistently produced average, great and Hall of Fame-caliber professional athletes.


But the dawn of integration darkened much of the light seen by athletic departments at historically black colleges and universities. After Southern Cal's Sam "Bam" Cunningham knocked segregated Southern football to its knees in a prime-time game against Alabama in 1970, the doors began to open for black players at schools across the country. As a result, those institutions, underfunded since their foundings, had no advantage over white schools. Once, HBCUs had enough talent to make up for their lack of resources. Now, the talent is gone but the finances are roughly the same.

Before integration, historically black colleges and universities got top black players, says North Carolina Central's athletic director Bill Hayes. He was a three-time All-America football player at N.C. Central who won 195 games and six Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championships as a head coach at Winston-Salem State and North Carolina A&T.

"There was no such thing as a top black student-athlete going to North Carolina, South Carolina or Clemson or Virginia Tech," Hayes says.


When black athletes from the South became able to stay close to home and play "big time" football, historically black schools entered a new frontier. For decades, they'd had less in terms of facilities, but access to fantastic athletes. Once the athletes had access to the cushier environs of larger, majority institutions, black schools saw fewer top athletes at their doorsteps.

The past 40 years of the NFL draft makes clear the change in the football landscape. Between 1967 and 1976, as segregation began to fall, NFL teams selected 443 players from historically black schools. During the next 20 years, 291 players from black colleges were drafted. Only 55 players from black schools have been selected in the past 10 drafts.

In states like Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, where talent was great, the dropoff was most staggering. Between 1967 and 1976, Southern University, Grambling, Jackson State, Alcorn State, Mississippi Valley State, Texas Southern and Prairie View produced more than 35 NFL draft picks per school. In the past 10 years, those schools had a total of 15 players drafted.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blackhistory2007/news/story?id=2780876

[3rd Coast Tiger]

Here's an interesting quote:


Hayes says recruiting elite black talent has become "all but impossible," which he blames on the media and community expectations rather than facilities. "If there's a super-talented black student-athlete someplace, he even may want to look at a historically black college as one of his choices. But by the time he gets the courage to do it, he's been ostracized by his peers that he's got to have rocks in his head to come here."

[Lehigh Football Nation]

A very interesting article. I happen to think that HBCU's could do a much better job reaching out to folks in general, which (to me) start out with simple things like professional-looking web pages highlighting the special stuff your school has to offer. If you have a world-class band, have a website which shows that off. If Harry Carson is among your alumni, let it be known. If you've won 20 CIAA championships, let it be known. :twocents:

Still, it's fascinating to see how underfunding has also played a large part in this as well. I didn't realize that.

[bigbluetiger]

A very interesting article. I happen to think that HBCU's could do a much better job reaching out to folks in general, which (to me) start out with simple things like professional-looking web pages highlighting the special stuff your school has to offer. If you have a world-class band, have a website which shows that off. If Harry Carson is among your alumni, let it be known. If you've won 20 CIAA championships, let it be known. :twocents:

Still, it's fascinating to see how underfunding has also played a large part in this as well. I didn't realize that.

Very good point.

[eaglesrthe1]

What level of funding are we referring to? Are HBCU football programs underfunded compared to other FCS programs? I would think that they would run the range that other FCS programs do. Of course, compared to the FBS elite programs, they are certainly "underfunded", but then again so is every FCS program.

Without looking at any statistics, so I am pulling everything from out of my ass, they are where they belong in respect to the $$$ equaling the product that they pass on to the next level, or pretty much in line with other FCS programs.

[rufus]

What level of funding are we referring to? Are HBCU football programs underfunded compared to other FCS programs? I would think that they would run the range that other FCS programs do. Of course, compared to the FBS elite programs, they are certainly "underfunded", but then again so is every FCS program.

Without looking at any statistics, so I am pulling everything from out of my ass, they are where they belong in respect to the $$$ equaling the product that they pass on to the next level, or pretty much in line with other FCS programs.
Here's an athletic budget comparison between relatively recent I-AA/FCS national champions and some top HBCUs:

App State: $9.2 million
JMU: $23.0 million
Delaware: $16.5 million
WKU: $16.1 million
Montana: $13.9 million
Georgia Southern: $9.3 million
UMass: $20.1 million
YSU: $9.3 million

Grambling: $5.4 million
Southern: $8.1 million
Jackson State: $5.6 million
Hampton: $6.6 million
FAMU: $6.7 million

The two most successful I-AA programs in history have athletic budgets just slightly larger than Southern's. Then again, HBCUs in general have substantially smaller budget than these top I-AA/FCS programs.

[DetroitFlyer]

It will probably never happen, but it sure seems somewhat logical that the PL, PFL, MAAC, NEC, SWAC, and MEAC, should consider an informal alliance for scheduling OOC games. It could be argued, that these conferences are a bit below the "power" conferences of FCS, ( to one degree or another ), from a competitve view point. An effort to play OOC games against one another would probably provide for some competitive football games as compared to playing FBS schools or schools from "power" FCS conferences.... Yeah, I know that there is far too much pride at many schools for anything "formal" to develop, but an informal alliance, and maybe even a Gridiron Classic like bowl game(s), might be interesting to debate.... Final 2006 GPI:

Conference Rank
Rank, Conference (Average Rating)
1. Great West Football Conference (22.35)
2. Atlantic 10 Conference (24.93)
3. Gateway Football Conference (30.04)
4. Southern Conference (35.67)
5. Big Sky Conference (36.59)
6. Ivy League (40.90)
7. Big South Conference (46.69)
8. Ohio Valley Conference (50.21)
9. Southland Conference (50.81)
___________________________________________
10. Patriot League (55.79)
11. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (58.23)
12. Northeast Conference (64.49)
13. Southwestern Athletic Conference (64.63)
14. Independents (67.70)
15. Pioneer Football League (69.58)
16. Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference (83.64)

[BEAR]

Excellent points. But if you want to see some of tomorrows NFL players, check out schools like UAPB, they are not typically successful, but the individual talent displayed during the game is phenomenal! :hurray: Heck, we played UAPB a few years back and had to avoid kicking to one of their RBs or it was an automatic 6. :nod: I just didn't see a whole lot of organization to the team that year. But it was fun to watch! :hurray:

[HIU 93]

Here's an athletic budget comparison between relatively recent I-AA/FCS national champions and some top HBCUs:

App State: $9.2 million
JMU: $23.0 million
Delaware: $16.5 million
WKU: $16.1 million
Montana: $13.9 million
Georgia Southern: $9.3 million
UMass: $20.1 million
YSU: $9.3 million

Grambling: $5.4 million
Southern: $8.1 million
Jackson State: $5.6 million
Hampton: $6.6 million
FAMU: $6.7 million

The two most successful I-AA programs in history have athletic budgets just slightly larger than Southern's. Then again, HBCUs in general have substantially smaller budget than these top I-AA/FCS programs.

Good information. However, I have to take the article and the bolded part of your post to task. There are HBCUs which are quite financially solvent, however those schools' finances are targeted towards other aspects of the university. For example, Howard has an endowment of approximately $350 million. The donors that give Howard money, however, give it for scholarly, academic, and research based programs primarily, and athletics is a much less priority for donors than said programs.
Therefore, those schools are not "underfunded".

[Franks Tanks]

It will probably never happen, but it sure seems somewhat logical that the PL, PFL, MAAC, NEC, SWAC, and MEAC, should consider an informal alliance for scheduling OOC games. It could be argued, that these conferences are a bit below the "power" conferences of FCS, ( to one degree or another ), from a competitve view point. An effort to play OOC games against one another would probably provide for some competitive football games as compared to playing FBS schools or schools from "power" FCS conferences.... Yeah, I know that there is far too much pride at many schools for anything "formal" to develop, but an informal alliance, and maybe even a Gridiron Classic like bowl game(s), might be interesting to debate.... Final 2006 GPI:

Conference Rank
Rank, Conference (Average Rating)
1. Great West Football Conference (22.35)
2. Atlantic 10 Conference (24.93)
3. Gateway Football Conference (30.04)
4. Southern Conference (35.67)
5. Big Sky Conference (36.59)
6. Ivy League (40.90)
7. Big South Conference (46.69)
8. Ohio Valley Conference (50.21)
9. Southland Conference (50.81)
___________________________________________
10. Patriot League (55.79)
11. Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (58.23)
12. Northeast Conference (64.49)
13. Southwestern Athletic Conference (64.63)
14. Independents (67.70)
15. Pioneer Football League (69.58)
16. Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference (83.64)

I respectfully disagree on your assessmnet of the Patriot league. I believe it was just last year where our rating was above the Big South, OVC, And Southland. We can compete with the "big boys" just not last year :bawling: