Are HBCUs Prepared to Start, and Stop, the 2020 College Football Season?
As economies reopen nationwide and protestors stand shoulder to shoulder in opposition to racial oppression and police violence, several historically black colleges have announced that the largest gatherings in the name of commerce and culture will not be held in the name of preserving public health.
Socially distanced football games remain scheduled in October for North Carolina A&T State University, Fayetteville State University, and Winston-Salem State University, but they will not feature the throngs of thousands of HBCU students, alumni and community members that annually deliver millions in economic impact and life-long memories through homecoming celebrations.
In its official announcement, (NCAT) said canceling the homecoming events could help reduce the potential spread of COVID-19, which has infected nearly 50,000 people in North Carolina alone.
“Although we are deeply disappointed we will not be able to honor this highly-anticipated tradition,” Teresa Davis, associate vice chancellor for alumni relations said in a statement, “we believe if we make the necessary sacrifices now, we hope to be able to see everyone next year, with even more anticipation, excitement, and enthusiasm.”
These announcements come as four high-profile HBCU football games have been canceled due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus. HBCU Gameday reports on the financial impact of those lost contests:
FAMU and Southern were set to meet at AW Mumford Stadium on Sept. 12 in the second game of a home-and-home the two programs agreed to back in 2018. Last season’s game in Tallahassee was played in front of record non-homecoming crowd of better than 27,000 fans as FAMU held off Southern 27-21. The 2020 game was expected to be another big money maker.
Southern’s Sept. 5th season opener against Tennessee State has been canceled as well, per the report. That game, the Detroit Classic, would be the second classic game called off for TSU. Both teams were scheduled to make $400k each.
The cancelation of TSU’s matchup against longtime rival Jackson State in the Southern Heritage Classic was officially called off on Wednesday. The loss of both classic games would result in $750k of guaranteed money lost for the Nashville HBCU.
These cancellations speak reach far beyond the valuable cultural real estate that is HBCU football in October. All HBCUs should try to start the season, but are they in a manageable position to stop the season in the face of the inevitable?
Large crowds, whether for a black college homecoming in Greensboro or a political rally in Tulsa, are a public health hazard in the midst of a pandemic COVID-19. While other public campuses in North Carolina are seeking ways to promote more season ticket sales and are returning to pre-season training, it is undeniable that HBCUs bear a particular responsibility in mitigating the spread of coronavirus among people, and specifically black people.
But HBCUs aren’t a monolith in culture, academic execution, or established infrastructure in managing a public health crisis. Some campuses, particularly HBCU flagships like North Carolina A&T, are in a better position than most with personal protective equipment, testing and contact tracing systems. Some campuses do not have these resources, and because of this, they have hesitated about announcing opening dates for classes and have been non-committal to plans for the fall sports seasons.
The difference between the HBCUs and the predominantly white colleges in Carolina and states throughout the country is the margin of error for if reopening fails. PWIs have it, and HBCUs don’t.
Word of a single infection on any college campus could threaten an athletic season or an academic semester, but for the schools without an abundance of resources to test and to quarantine, the potential for derailing is exponentially greater. The natural risk of COVID-19, paired with limited mitigation resources on campus, will only become more apparent as athletes return to campus to train and students return for classes.
As infections spike across the country campuses will face greater pressure to define how they will keep people safe on campus in competition or in class. And truthfully, black college leaders have long known that without a coronavirus vaccine and with the mandate to reopen, the best plan for jumpstarting the academic year is to prepare for how to best bring it all to a screeching halt.
Some questions largely remain sector-wide. If HBCUs can’t have crowds for homecoming, does the same philosophy govern the approach for marching band practices and performances? How can schools afford extra buses for road trips to accommodate social distancing for entire football teams? If one infected player can possibly mandate a two-week quarantine of an entire team, and such a quarantine can impact an entire league and season, what do plans look like to discontinue competition at the campus and league levels?
We should credit schools like A&T, Winston-Salem State, and Fayetteville State for walking the fine line between operational optimism and caution. They are answering the questions, in some cases before they are asked, about how to proceed with caution and some sense of normalcy.
But when it comes to sports, playing against each other and for our schools links us all together in public health concerns and brand recognition — will all HBCUs be able to get on a shared plane of preparedness ahead of what is a nearly certain to be a truncated season?
White House National HBCU Conference to Be Held Virtually
The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and University will hold its annual national conference online this year, a first for the event and first non-sports large-scale HBCU event to be moved to virtual space in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The conference will be held Sept. 20-26, and will remain as an engagement opportunity between HBCU stakeholders and representatives from federal agencies with ties to bolstering funding and research at HBCUs, or in hiring employees from the institutions.
The 2020 Virtual National HBCU Week and Conference experience is necessary due to uncertainty caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and national emergency, which make hosting the in-person conference untenable. Moreover, the Initiative is committed to continuing to leverage our platform to provide meaningful experiences for the HBCU field. Over the next two months, the Initiative will partner with our Federal and non-Federal allies to develop a calendar of online offerings, exploring webinars, conference calls, and other supplementary means, to engage, inform and deliver value to the HBCU community during the 2020 Virtual National HBCU Week and Conference.
Officials expect to announce more details in October.
Could a New Texas A&M Scholarship Program Harm Prairie View A&M Black Student Enrollment?
Earlier this week, the Texas A&M University System announced a new 10-year, $100 million scholarship program designed to recruit more minority students to its 11 public institutions.
“Too often we are getting outbid for great kids by out-of-state schools that can make larger offers,” said Chancellor John Sharp. “We don’t intend to lose underrepresented students to them without a real serious fight. The goal is to make the A&M System look like Texas.”
The program provides $10 million annually over 10 years for scholarships to students from all socioeconomic backgrounds, particularly to low income, first-generation and students from geographically underrepresented regions of the state. The universities will be engaged in fund raising to help support this effort.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the state’s demographics last year broke down: 41.5% white, 39.6% Hispanic or Latino, and 12.8 percent black or African American.
In 2018, the system’s 11 institutions enrolled approximately 153,216 total students, with 16,612 self-identifying as African American — good for 10.8% of the system’s total enrollment.
That 10% may be just shy of the system reflecting the state’s diversity, but it’s not a bad number. Until you break down the trends of black student enrollment at each institution over the last five years.
In 2018, Prairie View A&M University enrolled 7,906 black students — accounting for 47.5% of the system’s entire black student enrollment. The number exceeds the total black student enrollment at the system’s four-largest institutions combined and did so annually between 2014-2018.
But with protests and heightened awareness of racist policies and discriminatory outcomes at the forefront of American conscience, the TAMU System is one of the most blatant cases of how corporations that are driven by older white guys with lots of money never miss the opportunity to exploit a good crisis.
It would make a lot of sense for TAMU to pursue the growing number of black college students in the midst of racial unrest, dwindling numbers of total college enrollment, and the likelihood that most campuses will lose a lot of students fearing coronavirus infection. But it is more than disingenuous for Texas A&M to make such a claim now for all of its institutions when historically it has been just fine with PVAMU doing all of the system’s heavy lifting for educating and graduating African Americans.
In a perfect world where true racial awareness would own the day, the TAMU System would’ve announced $100 million in scholarships going to PVAMU — the institution which has always led the way in attracting the state’s underrepresented and low-income student base. Instead, the system is now seeking to siphon those students away from Prairie View and onto other campuses, where because of historic and contemporary enrollment trends, they are not nearly ready to provide a welcoming academic or social environment for black and Latino students with heightened expectations of racial equity.
A recent Gallup poll of African American college graduates revealed that less than 21% believed that faculty cared about their personal success, compared to 29% of Latino and 34% of white students with affirmative responses to the same question. TAMU is smart to try and grab as many black students as it can for its financial and cultural resonance at a time like this, but not at the disposition of the single HBCU designed to do what 10 other system peer institutions never even thought to do over generations, and not under false pretenses of racial enlightenment.
