And Florida A&M, who won the first 1-AA national championship in 1978. But the reason black colleges do not compete well anymore in D1-AA is they no longer have the market on fast black athletes cornered. Kids who, in the days before and soon after integration, always went to HBCUs now go to elite D1-A schools. HBCU's not only get the leftover's and cast-offs from 1-A's, they now also get the leftover's and castoff's from other 1-AAs, because in the 80s and early 90s, the game evolved, while HBCU programs did not. Even today, you'll find a whole lot of HBCUs playing in shamefully dilapidated stadiums, running the wing-T offense. While some, such as Grambling State and Southern, are successful, for every GSU and FAMU, there is a Prairie View A&M and Morgan State. While I am never for playing 1-AAs, if we ever get into a scheduling pinch, I am for playing in-state 1-AAs over schools like Western Illinois. Instead of playing Southern though, I'd rather work with the loose deal we have with McNeese State; if the MSU Cowboys win the Division 1-AA national championship, they get a game with LSU. And MSU would have no problem selling their allotment; they helped set an attendance record at SLU a month ago and they sell out their stadium every game (granted, it only seats 18,000). I wouldn't schedule GSU, Southern, or any HBCU until they get stronger in quality and stop doing things that are hurting their programs, like refusing to participate in the 1-AA playoffs.
The first round of the 1-AA playoff is the same day of the Bayou Classic which have been in New Orleans since 1974. Moving the date of that game is not an option. Until the NCAA change the way the playoff is handled don't look for the SWAC to participate. It's designed to make money for the NCAA and not the schools. You have to bid to host a first round game with them getting a guarentee payout and a percentage of the gate. Very few schools makes any money in the playoff and last year championship game had 12k fans on espn2 on a friday night. :dis: Btw, Mr. Clayton is the only one talking that crap. Pete doesn't want that game, nor do the A.D. and most fans. Sometime I wish those that know nothing about the sport keep their mouth shut.
Re: Re: Re: LSU vs. Southern in football you mean the ones that Tech decimated in the 1AA playoffs 63-7 or something like that?
Since Virginia Tech chickened out of the rematch next year, maybe Skip should start looking at some of the independents teams. Wouldn't it be great to see the guys from South Bend, Indiania get their butts kicked at Tiger Stadium?
I would love to see it too but I'm sure that ND already has a big time opponent scheduled for that date. Realistically, Skip is not going to call the ND AD and get them to drop a scheduled team for a one time road game in Tiger Stadium.
My first reaction to the idea of an LSU-Southern game was that if LSU was unable to replace T Tech with a D1 opponent and was forced to drop to D1AA for a game was why not? One D1AA team is as good as another. No matter whether LSU plays McNeese or Southern an LSU win is not going to help them one bit in the rankings. Southern was ranked in the top 25 in D1AA. But are they really that good? I now have questions about whether Southern is really the 18th or 24th or whatever best team in D1AA. Are they capable of offering a high enough level of competition to benefit the LSU 4th and 5th stringers who would be playing most of the second half? Sure Southern has some great athletes but overall man for man would the Jags offer enough of a challenge to give the young LSU players a beneficial experience and help them improve as football players. If so I still would be in favor of giving them a game as a last resort opponent. If not LSU would benefit more by playing a Western Illinois or a McNeese. That would be up to Nick Saban and his coaching staff to determine.
Not next year, no way. We need a Div I name opponent. But somewhere down the road when we've got a good strength of schedule and can afford to play a I-AA team at home, Southern would be a better game than most any other lower-division team except McNeese maybe.
We would beat Southern by 100 points. Since successful integration the traditionally black schools cannot corner the market on top black prospects. For a long time from the late 60s to to mid 80s at least one black college player would go in the first round. When is the last time a black college player was drafted in the first round. These schools just can't compete with the integrated schools. They will produce a great player every so often, but then so will any I-AA school. Playing Southern would be a travesty. There is truly no more room for black college football anymore. It is surviving soley on its rich tradition.
Your use of the term "successful" is subjective. My understanding is that integration were about giving every child an equal opportunity for a quality education. Nothing about athletes, but that's a different discussion. To comment on your BCF players drafted in the first round, Jackson State had "2" in the 2000 draft Sylvester Morris (WR) went to the KC Chiefs and a Cornerback Rayshard Anderson to the Carolina Panthers. Steve McNair was the 3rd player picked in the 1995 draft. None of these players were recruited to any of the successful integrated schools in the SEC.
