Putting the cart earlier than the horse by no means works — particularly for a coach that has a historical past of developing brief.
When Sports Illustrated put Deion Sanders, Shedeur Sanders, and Travis Hunter on the cowl of their journal again in June, it was a slap in the face to South Carolina State University and HBCU football as an entire. The publication had dedicated itself to flash over substance, as they selected to focus on a workforce that misplaced the Celebration Bowl — the HBCU National Championship — 31-10.
The spoils are speculated to go to the victors, not the losers. Maybe that may change in 2023, as Deion Sanders simply misplaced the most essential recreation on the schedule for the second consecutive yr to a program from the Carolinas.
While this may increasingly come as a shock to so a lot of you that turned in a single day students on the inside workings of HBCU tradition and athletics, you need to know that HBCU football had been round for many years earlier than Sanders ever determined to be on the payroll at one for lower than three years. Since 2015, the Celebration Bowl has taken place in Atlanta to crown a nationwide champion in HBCU football, and 6 of the seven occasions the champion has come from the Carolinas. In 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019, the Aggies from North Carolina A&T dominated. Last yr, the Bulldogs from South Carolina State obliterated Sanders and Jackson State. And final weekend, North Carolina Central knocked off the Tigers 41-34 in additional time. In each version of the Celebration Bowl — which is a showdown between the finest from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) — the MEAC workforce consultant has been from the Carolinas, as Grambling State’s 10-9 victory over North Carolina Central in 2016 was the lone victory for the SWAC.
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Some of you simply learn that final paragraph and scratched your head. You’re questioning the way you had been unaware that the Carolinas and the MEAC had been dominating HBCU football and the Celebration Bowl in the period of “Coach Prime.”
The cause you’re bewildered is since you by no means cared in the first place.
From the nationwide press to the debates that had been taking place on social media, the conversations round HBCU tradition and athletics had been hijacked the second Sanders took the job at Jackson State. People — each Black and white — who had by no means spent an hour on an HBCU campus outdoors of presumably visiting for homecoming, or ever cared about the SWAC, MEAC, or the legacy of the Tigers’ program, now knew what was “good for HBCUs” with out having an inkling of how they function. And due to this, the voices, publications, and alums who understood the context and knew the details had been overshadowed all as a result of ESPN’s College Gameday determined to indicate up. Some of us knew that Jackson State was destined for hassle with SCSU in 2021, and wasn’t the favourite towards NCCU. But we had been ignored.
“Deion apparently didn’t want to have anything to do with me leading up to the game,” mentioned NCCU head coach Trei Oliver. “He didn’t come to the (pregame) press conference. So, he wasn’t around at any events that I was at. I didn’t have any words for him and he didn’t have any words for me. “We shook hands and kept it moving.”
“That made it so much sweeter,” Oliver added, “to send him on his way to Colorado or wherever else he’s going, ‘and-1.’ He’d been talking all this ‘and-0’ stuff, ‘and-0,’ and they’re going to dominate. So he can take that ‘and-1’ with him to Boulder, Colorado.”
When Sanders will get to Colorado it is going to be a impolite awakening for him, as he’ll take his 27-6 document to a program that’s coming off a 1-11 season. The Buffaloes’ 2023 schedule consists of video games towards TCU, Nebraska, USC, Oregon, UCLA, and Utah. Their 2024 slate opens with a recreation towards North Dakota State, which is taking part in in the FCS National Championship Game in just a few weeks. The Bison have received 9 FCS nationwide titles since 2011.
The “Coach Prime” period at Jackson State was at all times going to be a slippery slope for HBCUs as a result of the man who tried to be the savior of HBCU football was by no means going to stay round lengthy sufficient to graduate a single recruiting class. Contrary to in style opinion, not all PR is nice PR. And with Sanders’ pimping of Jackson State and HBCU tradition lastly over, there will definitely be an adjustment interval as all the consideration, debates, and protection that his tenure created is certain to go away quicker than it appeared, on condition that HBCUs have by no means been a focus for Americans — each Black and white.
There is a lesson right here, nevertheless. And it’s one in understanding, respecting, and listening to the ones who had been right here earlier than the cameras, and nonetheless might be after they’re gone. HBCU functions and enrollment have been on the uptick for years, and it has had nothing to do with Deion Sanders, football, or top-tier prospects flirting/mendacity about the thought of turning down a Power 5 program to attend one. It’s been because of the Black Lives Matter motion and the racial happenings which have occurred on this nation inside the final decade. Students are realizing the significance of HBCUs and wish to go residence — and football and a pretend savior don’t have anything to do with it.
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