Historically Black Colleges and Universities have filled NFL rosters with players like David “Deacon” Jones, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Shannon Sharpe, Darius Leonard, and Tarik Cohen, to name a few.
HBCUs were originally established so that Black people had access to a college education. But black collegiate athletes, in particular, have attracted money and attention to the predominantly white institutions.
The two main reasons Black athletes don’t go to HBCUs are that they don’t believe they’d get the same exposure as they would at a PWI and the athletic facilities at HBCUs are not as top of the line as the facilities at PWIs.
The NCAA brings in over billions of dollars a year in revenue through different sporting venues like the Division I men’s-basketball tournament and most recently the College Football national championship. Almost all of these schools are majority white and make over $100 million in athletic revenue while a small percentage of the undergraduate class are black males.
The amount of money that HBCUs could make from getting the same exposure as PWIs would help in revamping their athletic facilities. Top athletes would have a chance to consistently receive televised recognition. This would create a snowball effect where it would incentivize alumni to donate money to the athletic programs therefore allocating that money to better locker rooms, stadiums, and arenas.
The argument for HBCUs is that some black students feel safer on a HBCU campus compared to attending PWIs where they can be isolated.
Top black athletes are a top commodity for black colleges. Jim Crow and segregation made black colleges pretty much the only destination for black athletes until the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
Black athletes have more leverage to change the condition of college athletics compared to decades ago. Although the NCAA rules have prevented them from making money off their likeness and image, they are still generating massive amounts of revenue from college football and basketball.
If more high-school black athletes attended more HBCUs, their success can trickle down towards helping stimulate low-income black communities. It would boost revenue at HBCUs and put more black coaches on national platforms.
Dri Gordon, an aspiring NFL sports agent and former UCF football player, said he’s “happy that black athletes are stepping out their comfort zone.”
“It’s major for the HBCU’s because they are getting the recognition they deserve,” Gordon said in an email. “[It] also shows that major universities don’t define the athletes, the athletes define the universities they attend.”
He said he “believes that athletes that go to an HBCU get to understand that there’s more to life than just being an athlete.”
“They get to be around future lawyers, doctors, teachers and engineers,” he said. Whereas [attending] major universities, athletes are forced to be in an athletic bubble and don’t get to experience life outside of being an athlete which hurts them in the long run. It helps the black male experience in an impactful way.”
Former NFL player and Hall of Famer, Deion Sanders, is now the head coach at Jackson State University. Two weeks ago, Sanders managed to sign four-star recruits and junior college transfers away from Power 5 schools.
Sanders might be the coach to finally give all HBCUs recognition at both the college and pro level. This week, he was outspoken about why historically black colleges and universities only had one featured bowl game during the bowl season.
He told HBCU Gameday that when you’re not at the FBS Power 5 or Group of 5 level, you get left in the dust. He also would like to see a bowl system overhaul so more student-athletes at lower levels of college football are able to experience what he had during his time at Florida State.
“Why [do] we keep accepting Spam when we can get a steak? Why in the world would we do that,” Sanders said during a recent interview with HBCU GameDay. “And then, I get upset with the simple-mindedness of people that say, ‘we already have a bowl.’ Well yeah, that’s for two teams. Only two teams. What about all the other teams that had winning records? What other bowls do they get to go to? None.”
If other prominent players and coaches can follow Sanders’ path to coach at more HBCUs, top level recruits will follow and that can send ripple effects when those same players get drafted into the league.
