With the possibility of North Carolina Central University rejoining the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference at the annual spring meetings, the seemingly age-old never fully answered question comes up. Will the MEAC drop the Football Championship Sub-Division playoffs in order to throw down with the Southwestern Athletic Conference for black college football supremacy in a reborn Heritage Bowl?
As a student journalist a little over three years ago, I wrote a commentary on Black College Wire, suggesting that the MEAC was never going to get a fair shake after an 11-0 Hampton team was forced to play its first round playoff game on the road, a loss at William & Mary. I then followed that up by saying a Black College Title game would be better for business instead of trying to go head to head with predominately white institutions. Well, we all have the right to change our minds, and consider this one overhauled. The MEAC should continue to take steps towards an FCS championship instead taking a step backwards.
The MEAC is much closer in terms of parity than even fans, alumni and administration realize, because of the passion and desire of the presidents in this conference to hire quality coaches and recruiters, thinking outside of the box instead of hiring noted HBCU retreads who can’t get the job done. With improving facilities to match the improved staffs, the MEAC will be able to make some noise in the FCS playoffs very shortly.
However with the potential addition of the Eagles (a conference charter member that reclassified as DII in 1979), the MEAC would then have 13 member institutions, 11 of which field football programs. With the usual 11-game schedule, Central’s readmission would seriously put a crimp in the conference mandated hopes of scheduling bigger and better opponents if no open dates are available. So what to do? Simple math says two divisions (North and South) and an eight-game schedule. That would leave three (in some years, four) open dates for MEAC teams to find FCS powers and BCS teams to play.
Yet and still, you have to pose the question of dissent in the ranks. Many people foolishly assume that Delaware State University is looking to join up with the Northeastern Conference, which will gain full scholarship status as soon as 2010, not to mention the fear that Florida A&M will attempt another BCS reclassification effort in the near future. I’m sure those rumors and thoughts are news to Allen Sessoms and James Ammons, but let’s play the game anyway. First the divisional breakdown:
North (Football)
Delaware State
Morgan State
Howard
Hampton
Norfolk State
South
Bethune-Cookman
Florida A&M
North Carolina A&T
North Carolina Central
South Carolina State
Winston Salem State
This alignment keeps a majority of the natural rivalries the conference has alive (especially the Battle of the Bay and the Florida Classic) and leaves room for teams to schedule the UDs, Appalachian States and Kent States of the world. However if the conference does indeed splinter as some are predicting, what would another HBCU conference look like? Here’s my take on what could possibly become a third D-I HBCU conference.
Southeastern Athletic Conference or South Atlantic Athletic Conference:
FAM
BCU
South Carolina State
North Carolina A&T
Alabama A&M
Albany State
A&T
Central
And what’s left of the MEAC would probably be:
DSU
Hampton
Howard
Norfolk
Morgan
WSSU
Splintering the MEAC wouldn’t work because neither hypothetical conference would have enough football playing members to be considered for an autobid in the FCS playoffs, and with that field expanding to 20 teams in 2010, it just makes more sense to keep the conference together as a whole so two MEAC schools could get in on a regular basis.
So the overall point of this is that the MEAC should stand pat and stick together and work as a unit to make that conference the best it can possibly be in FCS from top to bottom. It can be done if all parties involved work together towards the one goal all MEAC schools covet; holding their own and thriving against the best competition possible.
