The Championship Subdivision News Log

Six members of the defending SWAC champions from Prairie View A&M, including their all-conference backfield of quarterback K.J. Black and running back Donald Babers, are part of the 2010 BoxToRow.com/BASN HBCU Preseason All-American team.

The preseason team is made up of 27 of the top Black college football players in the country. The voters are comprised of some of America’s top writers and media members who cover HBCU football.

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NEW YORK – The Hampton University athletics program was tabbed as the top-ranked NCAA Division I Historically Black College & University (HBCU) program on Monday, based on the final standings of the 2009-10 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup.

The Directors’ Cup is presented annually to the best college programs in NCAA Divisions I, II, III and the NAIA. The Pirates wound up 125th in the overall rankings with 131.88 points. Most of those points came thanks to the women’s basketball program, as well as the indoor and outdoor track & field teams.

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Open Letter to the HBCU Conferences - Please Post & Pass Along

The following letter was sent to each of the HBCU Conference Commissioners on Thursday 24 June 2010 . As an Alum & Fan I was concerned about the direction in which HBCU sports were headed. As a business man I am disappointed with the process and conduct as a whole in regards to the way that ” our business” was being managed. With that in mind and in an effort to assist with the correction of our path I reached out to the leaders of the CIAA, MEAC, SIAC, & SWAC. This gesture was to offer assistance in creating an aggressive plan that will benefit ALL HBCU’s athletically and academically!!! I am pleased to say that I have gotten positive, open-minded responses from most of the commissioners and we are now into the next phase of planning a summit.

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On paper, it seemed brilliant and simple.

The Legacy Bowl would pit the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference – against each other. Airing on ESPN, it would guarantee a $3 million payout to be split by the conferences. It would also end the arguments, such as when South Carolina State edged out Prairie View A&M for the Sheridan Broadcasting Network’s Black National Championship – neither team played each other (in fact, the MEAC and SWAC rarely play each other).

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NEW ORLEANS – Former NFL and Southern University stars Isiah Robertson and Aeneas Williams will be the newest inductees to the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame the organization announced on Saturday. The official induction will be at the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame banquet on Friday, July 23 at the Louisiana Superdome. In addition to the Hall of Famers, the Corbett Awards for the state’s top amateur athletes and multiple annual awards will be presented.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Heritage Bowl, pitting schools from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) will be restored under the name of the “Legacy Bowl".

This report comes to College Sporting News through sources on TSPNSports.com, who heard the initial report on the Jaguar Journal radio show out of Baton Rouge, La.

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Rough patches of grass are noticeable on the A.W. Mumford Stadium field, even on this dry day last summer.

Stump Mitchell had never seen A.W. Mumford Stadium when he agreed to take over as Southern football coach.

When he got there, he quickly learned why some mockingly call it “Mudford.”

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It’s not unusual for players to change positions in football. But it is rare for a player to move from one position to another and instantly become a star.

That’s exactly what happened to Jason House, Southern University’s outstanding free safety. House, a 6-foot, 190-pound senior, spent his first three years at wide receiver but didn’t see any action in the Jaguars’ offense. But prior to the 2009 season, he moved to free safety and emerged as one of the best players at his position.

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Odie Posey, a member of the Southern University Sports Hall of Fame and one of the most accomplished football players in school history, has died, the university announced Wednesday.

A running back for legendary coach A.W. Mumford, Posey arrived in 1947 from San Antonio’s Phillis Wheatley High School on a tennis scholarship.

But he became famous at Southern on the football field.

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The 2010 MEAC/SWAC Challenge presented by Disney will pit the Delaware State Hornets from the MEAC against the Southern University Jaguars from the SWAC on Sunday, Sept. 5. The yearly event, which features teams from two prominent Historically Black College/University leagues, will return to Orlando’s Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. The matchup will be aired on an ESPN network, which will be announced, along with kickoff time, at a later date.

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The stadium has been the site of many historical games and events, but now it’s use and appeal is slowly fading away

It is a Saturday afternoon in early October and some 11,000 football fans are sitting in the stands of Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium under a dark, hovering sky. On the field below, the Jackson State Tigers are in the midst of a conference battle with the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff and have just secured a 7-3 halftime lead.

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As the longtime president at Morgan State, Earl Richardson would, at first glance, seem to be a man who had all sorts of cross words for Stump Mitchell.

After all, Mitchell was the football coach there from 1996-98, and his overall record — a mere 8-24 — is hardly the kind of mark that made Eddie Robinson look over his shoulder.

But here is Mitchell, the new football coach at Southern, running at full speed in only his second month. His program takes an important baby step at 5:30 a.m. today, when spring practice begins inside A.W. Mumford Stadium.

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Mitchell is the Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs Coach for the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Southern University and A&M College has offered its head football coaching position to Lyvonia “Stump” Mitchell, the Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs coach for the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

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Richardson compiled a record of 134 wins and 62 losses in his 17 year tenure at SU

Southern University Athletic Director, Greg LaFleur, has announced that the University has relieved head football coach, Pete Richardson and his staff, of their duties effective immediately.

Damon Nivens, offensive line coach, will serve as interim coach until a replacement is named.

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Pete Richardson has one game remaining in his 17th season as Southern’s head football coach.

With one year remaining on his contract, Southern University football coach Pete Richardson met Wednesday morning with Athletic Director Greg LaFleur and Chancellor Kofi Lomotey, who gave the coach permission to pursue other opportunities at the end of this season — if those opportunities arise.

“Before today, I hadn’t really taken a look at any of them,” Richardson said later. “But (now) I’ve been given permission to take a look at some of those other opportunities.”

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Bayou Classic - always so much more than a football game with its job fair, battle of the bands and fan festival - brings joy not only to the fans but to the city.

There are the thousands of people filling the city’s hotels and restaurants and the reunions and parties that fill many neighborhoods.

And never has the almost weeklong round of festivities come at a better time for the alums of Grambling State and Southern University.

The football teams square off Nov. 28 in the Superdome, giving the hard-pressed students, faculty and alumni a welcome chance to cheer for their schools - rather than fume about them.

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NEW YORK – For the third straight football season, Black Athlete Sports Network and DWCommunications, LLC – the company that produces “From The Press Box To The Press Row” – will put out an HBCU All-America team (pre-season and post season) and a weekly top 10 poll voted on by members of the media who cover HBCU football.

A new historic poll was released today with the debut of the Boxtorow.com/BASN HBCU FCS Coaches Top 10 Football Poll presented by Classics Sports Radio Network.

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Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - In the Southwest Athletic Conference, there are the battles both on the field and away from the gridiron.

Teams such as Jackson State and Prairie View would love to challenge themselves in the FCS playoffs, even at a time when commissioner Duer Sharp has proclaimed that the SWAC has no desire to return to the playoffs.

And then there are teams such as Grambling, Southern and Alabama State that would prefer to play nationally-televised, regular-season games on the opening weekend of the playoffs, rather than make themselves available for the postseason.

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The Southwestern Athletic Conference announced its 2009 Football Preseason Honors Tuesday, headlined by Southern QB Bryant Lee voted the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, and Grambling State DL Christian Anthony voted Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Grambling State, the 2008 SWAC Champion, was picked to repeat.

All preseason honors and predicted order of finish were voted on by the league’s coaches, sports information departments and selected members of the media.

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Two returning Walter Payton Award candidates, Weber State quarterback Cameron Higgins and Elon wide receiver Terrell Hudgins, and two newcomers to the list, Southern quarterback Bryant Lee and Albany running back David McCarty, have been added to the watch list for the Payton Award, bestowed annually upon the top player in FCS.

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