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View Full Version : A Look Back, Forward: HBCUs and FBS



TexasTerror
May 28th, 2010, 12:09 PM
TBF posted this on TSPN. This article comes from 1993 and discusses the potential of the HBCUs (some from the SWAC and MEAC, plus Tennessee State) forming together to create an I-A (now FBS) conference.

This brings up several questions.

1) With where these schools are now - athletically, academically and financially - could something similar happen?

2) If it were possible, do the HBCUs need to partner with other HBCUs in order to make this work? Or could we see a Southern in the Sun Belt or Tennessee State in C-USA without having other HBCUs? (Just throwing random conferences out there)


Athletic directors from eight predominantly black colleges will meet today in Jackson, Miss., to discuss preliminary steps toward possibly leaving Division I-AA football and forming a Division I-A coalition because of possible scholarship reductions.

The future of the Southwestern Athletic Conference could be affected as SWAC schools Jackson State, Grambling State and Southern University are among the eight.

The other schools are Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference members Florida A&M, South Carolina State, North Carolina A&T and Howard, and Tennessee State of the Ohio Valley Conference.

Area SWAC schools Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M will remain in Division I-AA regardless if a new conference is formed.


http://www.tspnsports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89860

TexasTerror
July 16th, 2010, 06:46 PM
FYI - a look back again...did not realize how many HBCUs have looked at FBS in the past. Knew about FAMU.


As the nation’s NCAA Division One athletic conferences played footsie in recent weeks with ideas of expansion and consolidating their power football programs into 12, 14 or 16-team leagues to siphon off even more television and sponsorship money, one wonders about the HBCUs that over the years dangled their pinky toes in the Division I-A waters, but didn’t stay long.

Had they stayed the course or been able to get some others to join them in the long-rumored “HBCU super conference,” might they not be in position by now to have joined some major conferences by now such as Conference USA, Big East or Sun Belt???

One can only wonder.

http://www.hsrn.com/index.php/hsrn-columns/24-alvin-hollins-jr/472-division-i-a-status-for-hbcus-a-dream-deferred.html