Three Ways for HBCUs to Build a Pipeline for Five-Star Sports Talent
Howard University just landed one of the nation’s top college basketball prospects this today in Makur Maker, a 7-foot center who instantly transforms the Bison program and the attractiveness of HBCUs to top-tier athletes nationwide.
Maker indicated for months that he would seriously consider an HBCU for what will likely be a single-season collegiate career. And if those are his intentions, then Maker sets a new precedent for athletes realizing the power of their individual sports brands and the control they have over the billions which circulate within and around the sports marketing universe.
But HBCUs have to be more than grateful for this moment. They have to be willing to capitalize upon it. Here are three immediate ways black colleges may be able to make the most of the beginnings of an athletic movement.
Recognize that HBCUs don’t choose top athletes; top athletes will choose HBCUs.
Maker selected Howard from a list of institutions. Check and see which one of these is not the same.
Howard is the only HBCU, but one of only two schools with a predominantly black metropolitan population (Memphis is the other) and the only private institution. Howard’s apparel partnership is with Under Armor, a company that is looking to get out of costly sponsorship deals with schools like UCLA but keen on maximizing the moment of racial awakening with partners like HBCUs, while Kentucky and Memphis are both Nike schools — a brand which has not traditionally embraced black colleges with lucrative partnerships.
These are the factors, not rivalries or TV exposure, that will sell an athlete on picking a school for partnership as co-brand ambassadors over the course of a college sports season. When courting an athlete who can live anywhere and play for anybody, HBCUs are better served selling the cultural experiences of the campus and surrounding city as a ‘gap year’ stopover between high school and the NBA, or three years before joining the NFL.
Hype the global brand of HBCUs as a fan-building laboratory
Top-tier athletes once considered playing on television and against high-profile opponents as the pathway to exposure and being drafted by professional leagues. But with sports training academies around the world and digital media providing brand exposure to players and fans worldwide, players know that these commodities aren’t the only ways to international stardom.
HBCUs have faculty and alumni hailing from all corners of the country, and with their outreach work within dozens of nations, schools like Howard have limitless opportunities to sell Maker jerseys and to promote livestreamed games to fans around the world, even if they aren’t prominently broadcasted here in the United States.
Maker has already indicated that he has an eye towards global ambassadorship at Howard, even in the first 24 hours of his announcement.
HBCUs must commit to the gameday experience, every single game
Players like Maker choose between elite playing destinations by making distinctions between gameday experiences. No athlete takes well to playing in front of sparse crowds or fan bases without interactive traditions.
All HBCU arenas and stadiums get crazy for homecoming. None of them get crazy for inconsequential games against lousy teams. And the disparity between the two atmospheres is the kind of thing that any player, blue-chip or otherwise, can take to Twitter to critique, and will be the first thing mainstream media jumps on to pressure top athletes like Maker against choosing HBCUs.
Administration at HBCU campuses nationwide has to prioritize athletic game day culture within and around the campus communities. Football stadiums and basketball gyms with less than 1,000 people are unacceptable for any school that is serious about attracting and retaining top talent.
Heroes need fans, and we can’t be too proud to beg them to be a part of the movement all season long.
Southern Launches Historic Medical Marijuana Product Line
Two years after signing a multi-million dollar medical marijuana development deal, Southern University’s flagship campus has announced the launch of a cannabis-based product brand, the first entrepreneurial effort of its kind at a historically black institution.
Officials from the Southern University System and the Baton Rouge campus announced the launch weeks after a new law was signed allowing Louisiana physicians to prescribe medical marijuana to patients for a range of diagnoses.
“With the launch of both CBD and THC medical marijuana products, Southern continues to set precedents in innovation,” (Southern System President Ray) Belton said. “In addition to providing healthcare options for Louisiana residents, our valued partner, Ilera, is able to hire local talent. All of this impacts our state’s economy directly while expanding the Southern University brand.”
The university is now a state-leading producer in research and development for cannabis and hemp-based products, an industry predicted to exceed $15 billion in revenues by the end of 2020.
William Bynum Sues Jackson State
Former Jackson State University President William Bynum says that the historically black Mississippi flagship institution owes him a job and 110% of his salary as president, even though he resigned after being arrested for soliciting a prostitute in February.
The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports on the court filings in which Bynum alleges that his presidential contract requires him to be hired as a full professor with the adjusted earnings upon his termination or retirement.
In court filings Bynum says he made $375,000 annually, which includes $75,000 contributed by JSU’s foundation. He argues his 2017 employment contract lays out that if he was ever terminated or fired, he would still “be compensated as a full professor at the rate of 110% of the highest faculty salary…”
“…The university and IHL in a May 21 filing argue after Bynum resigned, he became an “at-will employee” of JSU, which allowed the school to fire him for no reason on April 6.
“The Employment Contract contains no term of Bynum’s employment as a professor in the event he resigned his position as president,” attorneys for JSU and IHL state. “When a contract for employment is for an indefinite term, it may be terminated at will by either party.”
Bynum pleaded not guilty to charges of solicitation, providing false information to police and marijuana possession in March. His hearing is scheduled for July 8.
