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.

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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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Mississippi State and Ole Miss will each spend about four percent more on athletics than they did a year ago, according to athletic department budgets approved Wednesday by the state College Board.

Ole Miss has the larger of the two totals, checking in with a projected $43.7 million. Mississippi State’s 2010-11 budget is $37.4 million. Both budgets are among the smallest in the Southeastern Conference.

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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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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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LORMAN — Alcorn State University released the Braves’ tentative 2010 football schedule on Tuesday, and head coach Earnest Collins can breath a little easier not only when he sees the teams the Braves are playing, but who they aren’t.

Unlike last season, when Alcorn opened its season on the road against Bowl Subdivision teams Southern Miss and Central Michigan — and lost those two games by a combined 100-0 — the Braves will open up the 2010 season at Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 18.

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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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LORMAN — If you run into an Alcorn State player, coach or fan today and notice that they are a little more giddy than usual, there’s a good reason for that.

After three Southwestern Athletic Conference games, the Braves find themselves alone in first place in the East Division and control their own destiny in reaching the SWAC championship game.

Alcorn’s State’s 34-16 homecoming victory over Alabama A&M coupled with Jackson State’s 19-17 loss to Texas Southern puts the Braves in first place by themselves with a 2-1 conference record.

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Last Thursday’s Alcorn State – Univ. Arkansas-Pine Bluff football game has been cancelled and will not be concluded.

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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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NEW ORLEANS - On July 22, youth football players from New Orleans and the surrounding area are invited to attend a free half-day clinic at Pontchartrain Park, as part of NCAA Football’s national youth initiative in partnership with the Allstate Sugar Bowl and R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.

This clinic, one of nine free clinics NCAA Football is hosting across the nation, will be led by coaches and student-athletes from Alcorn State University, Millsaps College, Nicholls State University, Tulane University and University of Louisiana Lafayette (ULL). Participants will enjoy an introduction from key Tulane University student-athletes before engaging in on-field agility drills, offensive and defensive training, and off-field character development.

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HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) -Titans quarterback Vince Young didn’t expect to speak Saturday during his mentor’s funeral. He wound up summing up the emotional day with just a few words.

“Steve was like a hero to me, and heroes are not supposed to die,” Young said before stopping to rub his eyes as he talked about the man he knew from football camps as a teenager and called “Pops” - Steve McNair, his predecessor with the Titans.

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Steve McNair brought more than just talent to the quarterback position. He played with toughness. He played with leadership. He was more dangerous in game-winning situations than he was in the first quarter.

Those qualities made McNair’s sudden death on Saturday at age 36 even harder to fathom. McNair was a never-say-die kind of player, the type of quarterback you never counted out until the final play. He led the Titans to Super Bowl 34 as a wild-card team. Once there, they nearly beat the favored Rams, before losing on the game’s final play. McNair completed a potential game-tying pass to Kevin Dyson, who was stopped just inches short of the goal line.

That was McNair’s only trip to the Super Bowl, and it remains the Titans’ only trip to the big game. But other than winning a championship, McNair accomplished virtually everything else as a player. He made the Pro Bowl four times, and the best of his 13 NFL seasons came in 2003, when he shared the league MVP award with Peyton Manning. McNair threw a career-high 24 touchdown passes that season with only seven interceptions, and his quarterback rating of 100.4 was the best of his career.

Out of Alcorn State, McNair was the first quarterback taken in the 1995 draft and the third player selected overall. McNair barely played as a rookie, but once he became a starter for the Titans, a decade of success followed.

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McNair is found with multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. A 20-year-old woman also is found dead at the scene, with a single gunshot wound to the head.

The shooting death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair raised questions Sunday about his relationship with the 20-year-old woman whose body was found alongside his in his downtown condominium.

McNair, a four-time Pro Bowl selection who was married with four children, was found Saturday with multiple gunshot wounds on a sofa in his living room. The woman was killed by a single gunshot wound and a pistol was discovered near her, police said.

Authorities didn’t immediately say who was to blame for the killings, but they weren’t looking for any suspects.

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SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp Statement:

“I am saddened and shocked by the sudden passing of Steve McNair. During McNair’s career in the SWAC and the NFL he was a fierce competitor.”

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The shooting death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair raised questions Sunday about his relationship with the 20-year-old woman whose body was found alongside him in his downtown condominium.

McNair, a four-time Pro Bowl selection who was married with four children, was found Saturday with multiple gunshot wounds on a sofa in his living room. The woman was killed by a single gunshot wound and a pistol was discovered near her, police said.

Authorities didn’t immediately say who was to blame for the killings, but they weren’t looking for any suspects.

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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.

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