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.
This is the beginning of the end of the MEAC. There have long been rumors about Howard University’s desire to leave the conference, which would leave North Carolina Central University and Norfolk State University as the last programs with any recent championship-level competitiveness or brand resonance in the conference.
It also means that the remainder of the schools, several of which have been beleaguered by financial strain or public censure and sanction by the NCAA for falling below academic progress standards, now would have enormous cover to leave for more financially gainful, competition friendly and regionally proximate leagues.
For most of them, that would be the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
Leaders at most of the schools are probably hesitating with their own moves to analyze the potential losses in NCAA distributions for post-season tournament berths and enrollment in having to reduce the number of sports, athletic scholarships, and sponsorship which would come with defections. But given the decreasing likelihood that there will be football this fall, alumni who have longed for a return to the rivalries and geographic access to travel to CIAA games have waited for a moment like this for decades.
The real conversation all HBCUs should be having is how to sever ties from separatist and harmful corporate requirements of the NCAA. As bigger predominantly white institutions move forward with plans on how to compensate players and negotiate broadcast and licensing deals without the NCAA, HBCUs are on the verge of being completely left behind as financial members.
But because most HBCU fans aren’t informed or militant enough for the conversation about leaving the NCAA, the next best step for most black colleges is conference realignment. And while we may be several years behind the Power 5 money grab, there is money to be made and saved in a new view of the CIAA and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) in Division II competition.
What if HBCUs Used Alumni to Mentor, Career Coach Potential Students Instead of College Graduates?
There is a growing level of coverage on how the coronavirus pandemic is claiming much of the traditional college experience, including summer and post-graduation internships. From the Wall Street Journal:
College counselors and gap-year consultants are being flooded with calls—mostly from parents anxious about courses going online and worried the quality of the education might not be worth the price. Most are still only exploring the possibility, since colleges haven’t yet announced whether campuses will open in the fall, or if they will reduce tuition if classes remain online.
Jason Sarouhan, a gap-year consultant at Northampton, Mass.-based J2 Guides, says the overriding question is what a year off might look like, given current travel restrictions and the impact of the pandemic on the economy. It could just mean taking computer coding classes online. While some international programs have canceled, many are only revising their itineraries. He is suggesting U.S.-based programs that involve farming or wilderness adventures, since they likely involve fewer interactions with other people. He is also helping students look at volunteer opportunities in health care and online internships.
What if black colleges took advantage of the looming enrollment bust by reconfiguring the HBCU internship process as a foundational learning tool instead of a capstone proficiency experience? What if campuses aggressively reached out to working alumni and asked them to serve in a professional mentoring network designed to match student professional interests with workers in those industries for regular counseling and advice?
Internships are traditionally reserved for juniors and seniors who have amassed enough theoretical training for a scaled-back apprenticeship opportunity, where they are brought on to support administrative tasks of an office while occasionally learning tips on communication, management, and planning at high levels of industry.
But what if high school graduates who are not committed to a campus and not sold on the prospects of returning to school could learn from men and women who have graduated from HBCUs, and like them, are navigating new normals in work and lifestyle? What better way to convince a young person that college, even with limited access to campus, is still worth it because workers are going through the same fears, dissatisfaction, joys, and new journeys of professional life in the era of COVID-19?
It is free for colleges to reach out to prominent and active alumni in asking them to serve as an online mentor for one or some young people interested in their line of work. It costs a student or family nothing to connect with that alumnus via FaceTime or Zoom on a regular basis for the alumnus to talk about their careers and lives, and students to talk about their excitement or apprehensions around the world ahead of them.
And the experience may help students to make decisions about where they will enroll once the campus experience meets their expectations — or if they change their minds about enrolling online.
It costs nothing but a little innovation and creativity about reaching out to student applicants and alumni who already have levels of affinity for a campus, and for whom schools already have contact information.
