Earlier this week, MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas spoke with the Newport News, Va, Daily Press. Here are the highlights of his Q&A with the Daily Press.
Q: One obvious sign of progress is that there is no lack of schools that want to join the MEAC. Savannah State and Winston-Salem State already have applied for admission, and North Carolina Central is expected to do so after a Division I exploratory year in 2006-07. What is the status of the applicants?
A: Right now we're going through an evaluation process, and we'll have a decision on Savannah State and Winston-Salem in the spring, at our May meeting at the latest. The Council of Chief Executive Officers ultimately makes that decision.
Q: If you expand by two or three schools, that would make you a 13- or 14-team conference. You'd have 11 or 12 football-playing schools, versus nine today. Will you divide the football schools into divisions and create a MEAC championship game?
A: Our long-range strategic plan, if we have 10 or more football-playing institutions, is to possibly go into divisional play and have a championship game. That would give us the opportunity to generate additional revenue. Our champion would forego participating in the Division I-AA playoffs.
Q: If the MEAC championship-game winner isn't going to the I-AA playoffs, will it be playing the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship-game winner for the Black College National title? (Note: The SWAC already skips the I-AA playoffs to conduct a championship game)
A: We've already discussed it. That's part of the game plan. We think we could make it work. We (the MEAC and SWAC) are in discussions.
Q: What is the marketing potential of that game?
A: If we bring back a black national championship, the Heritage Bowl, we'll generate significant, significant revenue for the conference and the institutions that participate.
Mr. Thomas expects a revived Heritage Bowl to bring in up to $500,000 for the each conference (MEAC & SWAC).
Division I-A college football does just fine without a playoff, even though I wish they had one.
ReplyDeleteI think it has been shown that the Florida Classic makes more money for FAMU and B-CC then winning the I-AA Championship.
I do not think the MEAC should limit itself to some mythical black college title that most sports networks will not honor. Plus, we would be excluding black teams from the playoff arena. Thus, returning back to the days of segregation. I just do not like it.
ReplyDeleteOh NO!
ReplyDelete