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NC A&T Leaving MEAC for Big South effective July 2021

PhDeac

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Pretty big change in NC sports.
https://www.greensboro.com/sports/c...cle_827f910e-c4eb-5815-8821-1ed75cf66272.html

The Aggies’ bowling team would remain in the MEAC, the source said, but all other sports would move to the Big South effective July 1, 2021.

That would make the 2020-21 school year A&T’s last season in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, a league with 11 full members that are all historically black colleges and universities.

The Big South, meanwhile, has 11 full members, all in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. That’s an obvious appeal for travel for A&T athletics with High Point, Gardner-Webb, Campbell and Asheville all in-state trips.

Nice picture of our old friend Kwe Parker at the bottom.
 
HBU Hampton left the MEAC to join the Big South last year. The addition of NC A&T will give the Big South 12 members, and leave the MEAC with 10.

Hampton is currently in 3rd place in the Big South behind Radford and Winthrop. I assume that the Big South provides a larger per school pay-out than the MEAC, but the Big South is only marginally better than the MEAC in basketball. There are 32 D-1 conferences, the MEAC is #32, and the Big South is #30. So, it's not exactly a major step up in competition (which explains why those who extoll Kelsey's record need to understand who those wins are coming against.
 
Good for them. A lot of short road trips. There's an article at the ESPN site (or maybe The Athletic) about life on the road with the NC Central team. Talk about college athletes deserving of getting paid (which I'm not sold on yet).
 
Kennesaw State recently joined in football as well. I thought they were an hbcu but they aren’t. Just a very high African-American enrollment. Interesting though that we are finally having some hbcu/ highly black enrolled schools making the upward trajectory in athletics. If WSSU’s administration had their shit together, (which they don’t) they would be doing everything in their power to join the MEAC. It is one of the bigger schools in the CIAA and up until very recently were dominant on the gridiron. Unfortunately I think the leap from D-2 to FCS is even larger than the FCS to FBS move.
 
WSSU has already tried to transition to D-1 back in the early '00s. They wound up stepping back down after about three years or so. If I recall correctly, cost was a big factor in the regression back.
 
WSSU has already tried to transition to D-1 back in the early '00s. They wound up stepping back down after about three years or so. If I recall correctly, cost was a big factor in the regression back.

Ah, didn’t know that. It doesn’t surprise me that it wasn’t successful. My wife went there and she could write a book about the corruption and lack of institutional control going on at that school. Complete clown show. The nursing school is the only thing keeping it afloat these days.
 
Ah, didn’t know that. It doesn’t surprise me that it wasn’t successful. My wife went there and she could write a book about the corruption and lack of institutional control going on at that school. Complete clown show. The nursing school is the only thing keeping it afloat these days.
Yes. They actually had a great run in basketball and football for a few years after the regression.
They had filled their rosters with D-1 talent and not all of it transferred away when the school went back to D-2.
And yeah, the mismanagement and other problems at WSSU are an open secret. I'm frankly surprised no one has ever done a media expose or written a book on it. Even locally. I think if it wasn't a HBCU or was more successful in sports/famous in general it wouldn't be ignored.
 
I heard WSS didn't want to lose their historical rivalries, and that was a big reason they went back. Money, shmoney ...
 
Reading comprehension much?
Zqglass and I are talking about Winston-Salem State University.
Chill out Homeslice. Somebody else had posted how this move would get them D1 money.
 
Chill out Homeslice. Somebody else had posted how this move would get them D1 money.

Yeah. But now they can get an auto bid into the FCS playoffs.
 
Yes. They actually had a great run in basketball and football for a few years after the regression.
They had filled their rosters with D-1 talent and not all of it transferred away when the school went back to D-2.
And yeah, the mismanagement and other problems at WSSU are an open secret. I'm frankly surprised no one has ever done a media expose or written a book on it. Even locally. I think if it wasn't a HBCU or was more successful in sports/famous in general it wouldn't be ignored.

I would love to hear Stephen A. Smith’s opinion on all of the issues at WSSU..
 
Good move by A&T.

Yep, should help with recruiting NC kids. A good friend of mine (a white dude) went to A&T and LOVED it and is super excited by this move for their sports teams
 
Could give them a leg up on recruiting over other HBCUs as well.

It will be interesting how it impacts existing rivalries and GHOE.
 
Yeah. But now they can get an auto bid into the FCS playoffs.

A&T gets that automatic bid anyway and turned it down for years to take the much bigger money with the Celebration Bowl. Teams going to the FCS playoffs don't typically start breaking even unless they make it to the 3rd round of games. A&T is going to forego the $1 mill in a not automatic Celebration Bowl appearance to far fewer expenses in travel in the Big South. The BS is basically located in 3 states. Looking at the MEAC not even being in existence in fewer than 10 years.
 
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