Get mad, get tired, get frustrated. Just make sure you get someone else to come with you and get going.
— JCS
FAMU Considers Leaving the MEAC, CIAA Should Rejoice
HBCU Gameday reports on details out of Florida A&M University on plans for the state flagship to relocate from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference to the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
FAMU stated that a benchmarking study from 2020 determined that it would be better off in the SWAC than the MEAC. The report cites a number of issues with the MEAC, including the loss of Hampton and North Carolina A&T along with travel concerns and “prohibitive deals in place that don’t benefit the universities they are supposed to serve” when it comes to TV, apparel and sponsorships.
Travel, stability and money are all things that FAMU cites as favorable to moving to the SWAC. It currently leads the MEAC in distance traveled, and according to its findings, travel costs would decrease. The SWAC’s media exposure also weighed heavily on FAMU, as it stated the SWAC “far exceeds the value that the MEAC provides.” It stated that FAMU’s brand presence on ESPN created three-times as many views as any other MEAC school, according to a MEAC report.
With a Rattler departure, the MEAC will have lost one of its founding institutions (North Carolina A&T) and one of the first two schools (FAMU and Bethune-Cookman) to expand the conference since its creation in 1970. Hampton, which joined the conference in the mid 1990’s, rounds out the list of the big brands which have bolted or are planning to bolt the league…
