While protests denouncing police brutality against black citizens spring up across the country, a byproduct of these demonstrations have been the encouragement to support black businesses and institutions. The one aspect of the black community in which these two intersect: the Historically Black College and University, affectionately known as the HBCU. These afro-centric instituitons are well represented by some of the brightest professionals this country has to offer in various industries, but not so much when discussing professional athletes. Mikey Williams, a fifteen-year-old basketball prospect, recently rebirthed the ongoing discussion of choosing HBCU’s over their white counterparts ( oftent referred to as PWI’s) by tweeting out “Going to a HBCU wouldn’t be too bad.” It was followed by offers from various black unviversities acrosss the country, but also the dream of the greatest athletic talent talent coming out of the SWAC instead of the SEC. However, for that to happen, there are more factors needed than 280 characters.
Exposure
If a running back from Grambling runs for two 90-yard touchdowns in an untelevised game, will a pro scout still be able to hear about it? Exposure is one of the key things that help these big-time athletic programs become the powerhouses they are today. Professional scouts can’t reach, or watch, all the programs in the country but the art of finding talent remotely is not lost. There is a story told that Andy Reid discovered Kareem Hunt while watching him play for a mid-major on a rare Tuesday night game that was televised. Right now, the main networks for college football – ESPN/ABC, CBS and NBC – do not show a lot of HBCU games outside of Labor Day weekend or the Bayou Classic. Sometimes, you might catch a HBCU playing a bigger university earlier in the year, when the latter is trying to get its legs ready for conference play. But nobody wants their lasting memory of Howard University getting blown out by University of Alabama backups.
The good thing about exposure these days is that there are various ways that you can be seen. ESPN can stream games through a few of their channels such as ESPN 360 or ESPN Plus. Even services such as YouTube TV could enter in exclusive deals for live streaming of HBCU’s to accommodate a growing modern audience. As streaming channels expand, the need for content grows and can go in the direction of live sports. Sure, BET used to broadcast HBCU football games, but maybe they can set the standard and stream them through their BET Plus service, in an attempt to attract more viewers/subscribers. The idea of exposure will attract some of the highest-touted recruits because they want to be seen. The 5 star black athletes are going to the PWI’s with the most eyes on them so they can better their chances to go pro. In football, it’s an SEC school; in basketball, it’s Duke or North Carolina. HBCU’s have to find ways to get in front of the best talent on a more consistent, favorable basis.
Money
This should have been saved for last but money was too obvious of an option to be put at the end. The thing about money is that it feeds into a lot of things for bringing in recruits (not how you think). Athletic facilities must be kept up to date, especially if there is a stadium that belongs to the team. In addition to locker rooms and weight rooms, upgrades would be needed for dorms as well as other parts of the campus. Appearance will play a big part in bringing in top talent so a pretty penny will be needed. But after all that has been addressed, you put in some top notch, experienced coaches. Likely it would be some assistants from a FBS university, looking to get their own head coaching career started; same thing with some assistants or former HC’s from the pro’s. College athletics has so much talent, that’s mainly raw and unfiltered, but very few programs have coaching that can bring the best out of that talent on a consistent manner.
It doesn’t take much to drive home the point of money being needed to fuel this movement, but it’s brought up to point out how HBCU’s arrive at a disadvantage. These historic colleges are constantly being reported as being in financial strain, something that 5 and 4 star looking for scholarships do not want to hear about, especially when there are schools throwing the world at their feet. College athletics is a dirty fight and you have to make sure your stacks can go round for round.
Commitment
Money and Exposure can get you so far can there be a real commitment to the goal? There has always been talk of the best black athletes taking their talents away from the bigger universities and making that money for the HBCU’s, but it won’t happen tomorrow. It’s going to take some time to reach a goal of this magnitude but if the commitment is there then it should fly by quickly. Alums, Athletic Directors, University Presidents and even the fans are going to have to engage with seeing this through. Sometimes the latter is how most of these PWI’s are pushed to their own success. Some of their biggest fans might ‘ve never even attended the school (i.e. Snoop Dogg rooting for USC). That also drives the point that all the black celebrities wanting to see HBCU’s succeed, should commit their support where their mouth is. Show up to some of these games to let it be known that this is where it’s at. Grambling could probably use Drake missing buckets in their layup line a lot more than Kentucky.
Right now, black businesses and institutions are receiving love from all over, so of course the HBCU conversation would come back to life. There has always been a need for them to reach the same competitive level of PWI’s, especially on the athletic level. In college athletics, the big moneymakers are football and basketball, sports that are dominated by African-Americans in population. These sports are also where a majority of the black community find their superstar professional athletes.
Imagine if Ben Simmons went to Southern instead of LSU or if Steph Curry went to North Carolina A&T as opposed to Davidson. How about if Patrick Mahomes still had the same career achievements and arm talent, but instead of Texas Tech, he went to Texas Southern. It’s not just something that the players should think about, but also the boosters, AD’s, presidents and fans should ponder on this as well. It wouldn’t just change the game, but the culture could really write its own rules.
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