‘Collectivize, Or You Run’: A Proposal For A New HBCU Athletic Conference


Kenn Rashad

Kenn Rashad

Person In Charge
Staff member
By Fred Batiste

Years ago, I wrote a column comparing parts of the college football recruiting process to the world’s oldest profession. A fan of college football and Blaxploitation films, I faithfully watched “The Mack” for the nth time. My jaw dropped when I began drawing similarities between what Goldie told his women and some of the things that go down on the recruiting trail.

http://hbcusports.com/2015/11/09/co...-proposal-for-a-new-hbcu-athletic-conference/
 

Clearly this author hasn’t been following the meac fans comments on the Celebration Bowl or their annual attendance figures.
 
bluedog said:
Clearly this author hasn’t been following the meac fans comments on the Celebration Bowl or their annual attendance figures.
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Blue, I'm fully aware. I did say it's fantasy booking. It's not about attendance figures. It's about tapping into those television markets and garnering deals that can potentially augment what's been lost for certain schools attendance. It's about leveraging those schools and the classics into getting TV deals ...

It's about maximizing what we have on our level (FCS) in a proactive manner instead of missing out on the opportunity like we did in the 1990s when the economy was great and cable/satellite TV was set to explode.
 
Journalist said:
Blue, I'm fully aware. I did say it's fantasy booking. It's not about attendance figures. It's about tapping into those television markets and garnering deals that can potentially augment what's been lost for certain schools attendance. It's about leveraging those schools and the classics into getting TV deals ...

It's about maximizing what we have on our level (FCS) in a proactive manner instead of missing out on the opportunity like we did in the 1990s when the economy was great and cable/satellite TV was set to explode.
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Oh this you dawg? In that case I whole heartedly agree with everything you say. :)
 
LMAO....Funny you all play me crazy but are slowly starting to see things my way.

I wasn't just talking when I threw out there Howard vs. SU, etc. (possibly in the Nations Football Classic).

If you want HBCU Football to survive you better start scheduling more home and home regular season games with MEAC Opponents.

As I have stated previously: Howard's Women's Soccer Team are not in the SWAC for nothing. They are only the genesis of the future.
 
BRAVEHEART123 said:
LMAO....Funny you all play me crazy but are slowly starting to see things my way.

I wasn't just talking when I threw out there Howard vs. SU, etc. (possibly in the Nations Football Classic).

If you want HBCU Football to survive you better start scheduling more home and home regular season games with MEAC Opponents.

As I have stated previously: Howard's Women's Soccer Team are not in the SWAC for nothing. They are only the genesis of the future.
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Bruh, this isn't exactly a new idea or what not.
It has nothing to do with MEAC-SWAC matchups...

Sooner than later, schools are going to have to make hard decisions about where they want to be in college athletics. You keep throwing Howard out here. The only value I see in Howard is the fact they are in the DC market, which might not be enough in the long run.
 
Journalist said:
Bruh, this isn't exactly a new idea or what not.
It has nothing to do with MEAC-SWAC matchups...

Sooner than later, schools are going to have to make hard decisions about where they want to be in college athletics. You keep throwing Howard out here. The only value I see in Howard is the fact they are in the DC market, which might not be enough in the long run.
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Wrong Again. What about TN State? Morgan State? SC State? NC A&T?

I only throw Howard out there because They currently....way in Washington, DC....have a sports team as a SWAC Member.

You can go pull up all my threads. But it's ok LMAO.

Keep playing me crazy. But change will come....Are you ready?
 
Look at the television markets overall and black households BH..

Out of Tennessee State, Morgan, SC State and NC A&T ... SC State is actually in the smallest market overall and black households...

Go back and read the op-ed. Look at the market numbers.
 
I mean no disrespect, so please don't take this the wrong way, but why do we always wait until the "11th hour" to start coming up with solutions like this?

The thing is, this was proposed some time ago. Go read that book called 100 years of Black College Football, or something like that. I don't remember the exact title. Big book, lots of pictures. I'm sure a good many of your here are already familiar with it. In the book it said that it was proposed some time ago for the HBCU's to break away and start their own league.

But of course we didn't do it. Today, whenever one of our schools enjoys a little success the first thing to come out of that respective schools alums/fans are how they're ready to "break away" from the rest of us small timers and go get in a "real" conference. FAMU is the best example that comes to mind, although my own school isn't far behind. Had some success, next thing you know there's a lotta big talk about leaving and joining some PWC conference and playing for national championships none of us are in a serious postion to compete for. And then the next thing you know those same schools are making news for "financial mismanagement."

I remember some of that talk from you JSU'ers, though it's much worse among MEACers.

They turned their nose up at a Bowl game for HBCU's until they didn't have any other choice and now have to play in it. We shoulda been playing a bowl game and made it a double-header with the CIAA and SIAC.

Now we're scrambling. Again. And bad financial decisions are usually made when your back is to the wall, like a number of our schools are. I know SCSU is.
 
BobbyBlueBlamm said:
I mean no disrespect, so please don't take this the wrong way, but why do we always wait until the "11th hour" to start coming up with solutions like this?

The thing is, this was proposed some time ago. Go read that book called 100 years of Black College Football, or something like that. I don't remember the exact title. Big book, lots of pictures. I'm sure a good many of your here are already familiar with it. In the book it said that it was proposed some time ago for the HBCU's to break away and start their own league.

But of course we didn't do it. Today, whenever one of our schools enjoys a little success the first thing to come out of that respective schools alums/fans are how they're ready to "break away" from the rest of us small timers and go get in a "real" conference. FAMU is the best example that comes to mind, although my own school isn't far behind. Had some success, next thing you know there's a lotta big talk about leaving and joining some PWC conference and playing for national championships none of us are in a serious postion to compete for. And then the next thing you know those same schools are making news for "financial mismanagement."

I remember some of that talk from you JSU'ers, though it's much worse among MEACers.

They turned their nose up at a Bowl game for HBCU's until they didn't have any other choice and now have to play in it. We shoulda been playing a bowl game and made it a double-header with the CIAA and SIAC.

Now we're scrambling. Again. And bad financial decisions are usually made when your back is to the wall, like a number of our schools are. I know SCSU is.
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I thought HBCU's — especially the D-I schools — squandered a golden opportunity for expansion and money-earning in the 1990s just as cable and satellite TV was set to expand. However, everyone was comfortable with their little piece and couldn't see the big picture.

Now, there's an opportunity, albeit not as great as the one offered in the 90s, for some to really take a hard look at the SWAC, MEAC and OVC and begin looking at other options for survival/success.

The problem with the FAMU thing was they went about it alone. Remember, there's strength in numbers. Let's say when FAMU made plans to move up, it was going to bring seven other D-I HBCUs with them to move up and form their own league. That would've been a far better solution.
 
Kenn Rashad said:
By Fred Batiste

Years ago, I wrote a column comparing parts of the college football recruiting process to the world’s oldest profession. A fan of college football and Blaxploitation films, I faithfully watched “The Mack” for the nth time. My jaw dropped when I began drawing similarities between what Goldie told his women and some of the things that go down on the recruiting trail.

http://hbcusports.com/2015/11/09/co...-proposal-for-a-new-hbcu-athletic-conference/
Click to expand...
I know for several years in TSPN/HBCUSports forums, that reference to the scene in "Willie Dynamite" has come up several times in discussion for similar reasons.
 

This article is right on the MONEY especially since schools are seriously talking about leaving the conference with legit reason....look out West..
 
JSUDMJ2004 said:
This article is right on the MONEY especially since schools are seriously talking about leaving the conference with legit reason....look out West..
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It's not just the West either.

If the presidents get out of the way, the SWAC will be defunct in 10 years.
 
Kenn Rashad said:
By Fred Batiste

Years ago, I wrote a column comparing parts of the college football recruiting process to the world’s oldest profession. A fan of college football and Blaxploitation films, I faithfully watched “The Mack” for the nth time. My jaw dropped when I began drawing similarities between what Goldie told his women and some of the things that go down on the recruiting trail.

http://hbcusports.com/2015/11/09/co...-proposal-for-a-new-hbcu-athletic-conference/
Click to expand...

BulldogM.Ed.23 said:
I know for several years in TSPN/HBCUSports forums, that reference to the scene in "Willie Dynamite" has come up several times in discussion for similar reasons.
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Ken I look at the reference to Willie Dynamite as being something that D1 conferences have being doing for years and what the swac and meac should had being doing since the mid-80's or since intergration
 
Journalist said:
I thought HBCU's — especially the D-I schools — squandered a golden opportunity for expansion and money-earning in the 1990s just as cable and satellite TV was set to expand. However, everyone was comfortable with their little piece and couldn't see the big picture.

Now, there's an opportunity, albeit not as great as the one offered in the 90s, for some to really take a hard look at the SWAC, MEAC and OVC and begin looking at other options for survival/success.

The problem with the FAMU thing was they went about it alone. Remember, there's strength in numbers. Let's say when FAMU made plans to move up, it was going to bring seven other D-I HBCUs with them to move up and form their own league. That would've been a far better solution.
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i agree with most of what you said. i disagree with forming a D1 HBCU league with 8 schools though. I think we're so far away from being in position to make something like that happen that it shouldn't even be seriously discussed. i believe we need to focus on getting our schools back on solid ground financially (which means getting rid of the thieves in the adminstrations and on the boards), boosting enrollments, and reopening schools like Morris Brown.

and if I remember right the main issue with FAMU when they were talking about leaving was that in the end they just didn't have the money to make that kinda move, and outside of howard and hampton in the MEAC famu was probably on the most solid ground, financically speaking, at that time.

but I really think the opportunity was lost back in the 70's and 80's when HBCU athletics and especially football, and just the overall view towards HBCU's in general, were at their peak. Something should've been done back then. Now, here in 2015, we're in the position of having to rebuild a brand that we should've been building on. And I hate that. That's our history, and not just in athletics. I'm talking about Black people's history going back thousands of years.

We're always trying to reinvent the wheel because we either made the wrong choices or woke up to a situation too late due to not listening to our Elders, along with not knowing/ignoring our history

They were considering shutting my alma mater down for a year, and as much as I would've hated that the only thing I could say is we did it to ourselves. For a long while some of us SCSUers had replaced those from FAMU about leaving the MEAC and "doing the best thing for SCSU," not wanting to play in a "c**n bowl" (people have actually typed that) and a whole host of other nonsense that had no real thought behind it.

Dudes know better now though.
 
I'm not sure if PVAMU is a good fit for this proposal.

Fall 2017, PVAMU will learn a lot about its pending football future: 2 SLC tx schools/2 fbs tx schools OOC. We are not upgrading our athletic venues to stay in the SWAC lmao.
 
Bewildered said:
I'm not sure if PVAMU is a good fit for this proposal.

Fall 2017, PVAMU will learn a lot about its pending football future: 2 SLC tx schools/2 fbs tx schools OOC. We are not upgrading our athletic venues to stay in the SWAC lmao.
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See here's the perfect example. Not so long ago PV shoulda been licking the SWAC's feet for putting up with the disgraceful way your administration was handling your athletic dept and not dismissing yall to go compete with the likes of wiley and paul quinn on whatever level they play on, even if it's just intramural.

But now, a little success and all of the sudden the old SWAC ain't good enough. But I've lived my whole life down here and am too familiar with PV. Enough to know that yall ain't going anywhere. Just FAMU, JSU, and now SCSU all over again. But since ya'll seem to be as shortsided as the rest of us here's a little advice: Enjoy your current success, and brace for the "financial improprieties" that are most surely to come.
 
Blah blah blah PVAMU is not a good fit for this proposal. W-L has nothing to do w/ it. It's our direction & objective documented & approved by OUR system, negative naysayer smh.

Pick your face up, non-alum; it's not a good look. smh
 
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