Citing a lack of institutional control, the NCAA Committee on Infractions has placed Miles College athletics on a four-year probation, with penalties including scholarship reductions, and prohibition from postseason competition. A copy of the full report can be found here.

Last year, Lane College cost the SIAC a televised basketball championship game with multiple NCAA rules infractions. Who would’ve guessed that just one year later, Miles College would place the conference in a position to lose a postseason participant in the Division II tournament.

The SIAC has a major problem on its hands. Two member schools in the last two years have been cited for a lack of institutional control and have made national headlines as a result. If schools will not ensure compliance integrity by their own standards, it may be time for the SIAC as a body to moderate schools’ behavior. Sanctioning home games, suspending from conference play, something has to happen to change what appears to be a culture of incompetence about the importance of following rules.

It may be the only way to prevent a trend of institutions neglecting the importance of hiring trained personnel in athletics.

Technorati Tags: Lane College, Miles College

Instead, several of you have contributed to raise more than $400 dollars so far; all from individual donations. You really can’t imagine how grateful I am that you think this much of the blog, and my potential to turn it into a globally-recognized media brand. As you can imagine, I’m still well short of my $250,000 goal, but I’m more convinced than ever that we can get there.

To this end, I’d like to extend advertising and donation opportunities to businesses large and small serving black college communities. If you are any kind of business stationed within proximity of a black college, or serving a large population of black college students or alumni, sponsoring the HBCU Sports Blog is a great way to enhance your business name.

Reach more than 5,000 monthly readers of the blog throughout the United States. Drive active and engaged readers to your products, events or opportunities with a banner link on the sponsor page. Non-profits organizations and agencies with a focus on the African-American community are also encouraged to explore the advantages of sponsoring the HBCU Sports Blog.  Click here for more information on audience analysis relative to the HBCU Sports Blog, or email me at jarrett-at-hbcusportsblog-dot-com.

And of course, all of my individual donors are continually welcome to make a gift in any amount, or to purchase a sweatshirt from the HBCU Sports Blog Shirt Shop. New designs will be coming out this weekend, and if you are interested in receiving notice about the new schools sweatshirts that will debut, email me and I’ll add you to the list.

Again, I thank everyone for their generosity over the course of the last few months. I look forward to partnering with you to make the HBCU Sports Blog the attractive and informative news resource that our black college and university athletic programs fully deserve.

It’s interesting to note the diversity of the offensive and defensive teams. Clearly, the CIAA had many distinguished individuals performers, as the best offensive player in the conference plays for one of the worst teams.

On defense, it’s pretty hard to believe that only three players between two of the best defenses in the CIAA  (Bowie State and Virginia Union) were cut out for the first team.

Nevertheless, it’s a pretty strong list.

2009 ALL-CIAA FOOTBALL OFFENSIVE TEAM

2009 ALL-CIAA FOOTBALL DEFENSIVE TEAM

2009 ALL-CIAA FOOTBALL OFFENSIVE TEAM 2nd Team

2009 ALL-CIAA FOOTBALL DEFENSIVE TEAM 2nd Team

The Hampton Pirates again find themselves in an all-too familiar place; a talent-laden squad falling well-short of expectations, and facing questions about the near future.

Where injuries haven’t cut short their offensive potential, inconsistency has marred their defensive focus – particularly against the pass.

And with remaining games against Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M Morgan State and , the 4-4 Pirates walk a fine line between a third-consecutive 6-5 finish, or their first sub .500 season in 13 years.

If there is any good news to this saga, it’s that Dr. William Harvey isn’t likely to fire first-year coach Donovan Rose after the season. It may be a season of lows, but outside of the Battle of the Bay, the Pirates haven’t looked insufficiently coached in any contest. HU boasts the third-ranked rushing defense in the MEAC and ranks second in the conference in sacks.

And even if Dr. Harvey or athletic director Lonza Hardy wanted to fire Rose, there’s no way Pirate boosters and corporate partners would take a fourth coach hire in four years lightly. To signal a loss of program vision or a lack of continuity with recruiting and community relations would  be a death knell to a program that was once among the FCS elite.

So what happens now with Hampton football? Do you still consider them one of the better program in the conference? Have they been decimated enough to be ranked among the middle-tier teams? Or are they flat out just not what they used to be? For the sake of the emerging exposure of MEAC football on ESPN and elsewhere, it would be best to know so that pollsters aren’t overly influenced by bad showings in front of national audiences.

Hampton is one of the three football jewels of the MEAC, and one of its most successful programs over the last 25 years. We all know where Hampton has been as a program.

But it certainly would help to know which way they are going.

Technorati Tags: Hampton University

Albany State’s match-up with Fort Valley State in this weekend’s Fountain City Classic is much more than a rivalry – it’s a trap.

The Golden Rams know exactly what’s at stake for this game. Not just bragging rights over the Wildcats for the next year, but a chance at the SIAC football title. They know Tuskegee controls their own destiny, and that of the Ram title hopes over the next two weekends.

But more than that, you hope that Mike White and the Rams know that the air attack that took TU to a fourth-quarter, go-ahead drive two weeks ago is the same kind of air attack that the Wildcats are going to launch from start to finish. ASU leads the conference in interceptions with 18, and forced three takeaways last week against David Hart and Morehouse.

But the Rams are ranked just sixth in the SIAC in total passing defense, and the Maroon Tigers are nowhere near the passing threat that Nathaniel Samas and FVSU will bring to McClung Memorial. The Wildcats average more than 220 passing yards per game, and unless the Rams can run the ball effectively to control the clock, big plays will abound on both sides.

And if that happens, Fort Valley will have the upper hand. They will combine an existing confidence with a nothing to lose attitude. They’ll have no championship to let slip away, and all the reason in the world to exploit a Ram secondary that will be more than uptight should the score be close in the game’s waning minutes.

Should be a good game; probably on par with Albany State-Tuskegee. But a good game can’t be enough for a Ram team trying needing help to bust up the Tuskegee aura over the conference and trying to avoid a Wildcat trap all at the same time.

Technorati Tags: Albany State University, Fort Valley State University, Fountain City Classic

Of course, this post is not directed in any form to Florida A&M Rattler fans; I’m sure they are dying to watch the Rattlers stomp the lethargic Bethune-Cookman Wildcats in the Florida Classic.

But for general observers of black college football, do you have as much excitement for the Florida Classic as you had at the beginning of the season? Personally, there are three or four classics of which I try to digest all of the media and exposure I can: the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, the Bayou Classic, the Turkey Day Classic, and the Florida Classic.

But this year, I’m not so amped up about the Florida Classic as I normally would be. BC is terrible. They’ve shown some improvement over the last few games, but they are still likely to lose by a touchdown or three to the Rattlers. You never know; defensively, the Rattlers haven’t looked the same since the Miami game. It could be a slippery slope for the Rattlers in the biggest rivalry game of the year.

But even if Bethune-Cookman did manage to pull the upset over FAMU, it would be kind of a let down for a black college football nation rooting for the Rattlers to win out and possibly secure an at-large berth in the FCS Playoffs.

So, does the Florida Classic still matter this year? Are you as excited, and as likely to spend your money going to the game?

Or are you now wishing you checked out the MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Orlando?

Technorati Tags: Bethune-Cookman University, Florida A&M University, Florida Classic

I’m not even going to lie – I haven’t played BCFx since the day after I purchased it. The game is just that bad.

As a black college alumnus, I’ve been trying to negotiate my pride in black college sports with the severely underwhelming quality of this game. And I’ve come to the final conclusion that it is a historical collector’s item with no redeeming entertainment benefit.

I will respect the game and its creators for being the first to put it out there. As someone who is on the ground floor on building a media brand around black college athletics – believe me when I say that the effort was necessary and well-received.

But this is not a fun game to play – it’s not well engineered and not very challenging. The one bright spot about its creation is that a more-tenured game maker like Electronic Arts may be induced to see the hype and excitement for this game, and attempt to capture it in a future release.

This particular reviewer sums it up and down with disappointing accuracy.

It’s unfortunate that Black College Football: The Experience – The Doug Williams Edition is such a horrendous collection of bad gameplay and features. Both the alums of these institutions as well as the students would gladly pay for a game that accurately captured the spirit and the excitement of gameday for HBCUs. However, this is not the way to approach this demographic, and on top of this, the experience is so poorly done that it would probably infuriate them. Given that this isn’t the first attempt by Nerjyzed to make these games, it seems that capturing the real black college football experience is still far from being accurately presented any time soon.

Technorati Tags: Black College Football: The Xperience

You could make the case that the SWAC needs Grambling and Southern to contend for a title every year. Their classic is the one that fetches millions in revenue and national exposure. Their programs have the historic coaches and professional players of note. And in the SWAC, they are the programs of repute when it comes to recruiting power.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Superdome this year;  Prairie View A&M became the team to beat in the SWAC West. They’ve defeated Grambling State and Southern this season, and have very little obstructing the completion of one the most improbable of program turnarounds in college sports history.

Were this any other season, Grambling and Southern would be on equal paths heading towards a Bayou Classic collision course to determine the Western Division champion in SWAC football. We would be giddy at the prospect of SU senior Bryant Lee’s last stand as one of the conference’s greatest passers, going up against the latest incarnation of a do-it-all Grambling quarterback, Greg Dillon.

We would eagerly debate if Gambling had enough defense to keep up with Southern’s spread offense. The discussion would inevitably lead into ancillary debates about which school has the best band, the finest women and the strongest academics.

There will be plenty of time for the Panther story lines in the coming weeks, but it’s hard to imagine today’s SWAC where Grambling and Southern could be neck and neck this far into the season and not be playing meaningful football. It’s weird that the Tigers and Jaguars are not playing for a conference championship, but for a winning season, personal accolades and bragging rights.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It is indeed Prairie View’s time for success;  Lord knows that the PVAMU faithful have waited long enough for it. But we’d all be slightly negligent if we didn’t acknowledge the many threads that the Grambling-Southern rivalry has woven into the fabric of black college football.

And acknowledge that Prairie View is ready and able to take needle and thread to all of it.

Technorati Tags: Bayou Classic, Grambling State University, Prairie View A&M University, Southern University

“God has called me to something greater” Stokes said. “I believe he’s called me to work at a Christian school in administration. That is my path for the future. God has called me away from coaching and that is clear.”

You have to commend a person courageous enough to have more than one dream in life, and can lean on a spiritual foundation to support it. But with a career 17-69 record at WSSU and a new athletic director on the way in, you could argue that the Lord is smiling on the women’s basketball program as brightly as He is Stokes and her new career path.

Technorati Tags: Dee Stokes, Winston-Salem State University

After all, the flyer done told you so.

Technorati Tags: Fayetteville State University