The Championship Subdivision News Log

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.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

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).

Read more »

The Montgomery Advertiser is reporting that Alabama State fired interim athletic director Sterling Steward. Steward replaced Monique Holland last October and felt the decision came down to disagreements over the future of the ASU athletic department.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Six home games and nine Southwestern Athletic Conference games highlight the 2010 edition of the Alabama State University football schedule.

The Hornets open the season on Sept. 4 against SWAC rival Mississippi Valley State at Cramton Bowl. ASU continues its season-opening home stand Sept. 11 versus Arkansas-Pine Bluff before closing the month with a pair of road contests at Prairie View A&M (Sept. 18) and Alcorn State (Sept. 25).

Read more »

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.

Read more »

Malcolm Crutchfield held Tuskegee’s defensive log aloft, proud of what the Golden Tigers had just accomplished and eager for the next inscription that will be made on the wood.

One side reads “Dirty D” and another has “we lay that wood,” but the third side is where Tus­kegee has made regular marks.

It’s where the names of the teams the Tigers have beaten goes.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

The Alabama State University Hornets football team is going green this season.

In a collaborative effort between ASU and the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (AGI), the Hornets team bus now will be partially powered by used cooking oil that has been converted into a biodiesel fuel.

The “Hornets Football Team Goes Green” program, which will involve ASU’s cafeteria supplying the used cooking oil and AGI converting the oil into biodiesel fuel, was announced Aug. 4 at a press conference in front the Shuttlesworth Dining Hall at ASU.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

Penalty is reduced to a three-year period, ending December 9, 2011.

The Alabama State University appealed to the NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee specific findings of violations and penalties as determined by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions. In this report, the Infractions Appeals Committee addresses the issues raised by Alabama State.

Read more »

Three summers ago, the athletic directors of all 10 Southwestern Athletic Conference schools agreed to move to a seven-game conference football schedule, rather than the nine-game schedule that had previously been used.

The thinking was the creation of more nonconference openings would allow SWAC schools, which compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, to schedule games with schools from the Football Bowl Subdivision, games which usually come with a sizable payout.

Read more »

The Southwestern Athletic Conference has announced its four-game Thursday football schedule for the upcoming 2009 season.

All televised Thursday games will be shown live on ESPNU, beginning on Oct. 1 with Univ. Arkansas-Pine Bluff hosting Alcorn State at Golden Lion Stadium. In 2008, the teams played on Thursday night, with the Braves taking a 13-3 home win on Sept. 18.

Read more »

Reggie Barlow messed up.

The second-year Alabama State head coach readily admits now that bringing in offensive coordinator Ben Noonan and his spread offense last year was a mistake. It was a hasty move that was destined for failure from the start, mostly because that style of offense couldn’t take advantage of the Hornets’ biggest offensive weapon.

Read more »

Russell Athletic, a major supplier of sports apparel to collegiate and professional sports teams, is facing an all-out blitz from campus activists.

Twenty-five U.S. colleges have cut ties to Atlanta-based Russell over alleged abuse of workers’ rights at its plant in Honduras. Russell supplies game uniforms and accessories to schools across the country, including four historically black college leagues: the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Read more »

Proximity, history could charge UD-DSU meetings.

The University of Delaware and Delaware State University have some catching up to do.

Football rivalries don’t form overnight. But UD and DSU already have many of the ingredients to make this one special.

On Tuesday, the schools announced their first regular-season meeting will take place Sept. 19, followed by three annual games beginning in 2012.

Read more »

Few people know more about NCAA rules than Alabama State head coach Reggie Barlow.

And, oh, how he wishes he knew much less.

During his two years as Hornets head coach, Barlow has picked up a career’s worth of compliance and enforcement knowledge, as he’s guided the football program through the longest NCAA investigation in history.

While neither he nor any of his coaches or players were di­rectly involved in any rules vio­lations, Barlow was still forced to get neck deep in the process in order to quell any costly miscon­ceptions that could damage the program.

Read more »