It has been a rough start for North Carolina A&T in their first season in the Coastal Athletic Association.
The Aggies currently hold a 0-3 record, most recently suffering a 27-3 loss this past Saturday in their conference opener against Elon.
It is the second season in a row that NC A&T has started its schedule with three consecutive losses, something the program hasn’t done since 2007.
Beyond the team not doing well on the field, the school’s athletic administration was criticized for not valuing its rich HBCU football culture.
Among them is former Aggies running back Jah-Maine Martin, who called out the program on social media for many issues.
It started with the AD Earl changing conferences just for money not thinking about the culture, I feel like he sold us out 🤷🏾♂️
— Jah-Maine Martin (@dcmaine30) September 17, 2023
Martin, who was picked up by the Orlando Guardians of the XFL, was candid about North Carolina A&T athletic director Earl Hilton III choosing to move the Aggies out of the MEAC.
“It started with AD Earl changing conferences just for money, not thinking about the culture,” he wrote in a series of posts on Twitter X. “I feel like he sold us out.”
“We came to an HBCU for the HBCU experience,” said Martin. “If we wanted to play Townsend [Towson] for homecoming, we would’ve went to UNCG.”
The Aggies will play HBCUs Norfolk State and Hampton both on the road this year, though the football program has not hosted an HBCU opponent for its homecoming game since 2019.
North Carolina A&T and Hampton are the only HBCU football programs in the CAA. Tennessee State is the only Black college in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The hbcus football and band programs are growing and those hbcus that abandoned their hbcu conference will suffer from their own bad decisions. Deion Sanders have proven that the only thing hbcus needs is the funding and they would be able to stand on their own quickly.
I agree totally with Jah-Maine. You have A&T bragging about being the largest HBCU and when you look at the sports program, it doesn’t represent the brand. The sport’s program outgrew the system that nurtured it and the rivalries that gave it notoriety. Maybe they will share in bigger pots of revenue as they move around and try to find the best conference fit that is not “an HBCU conference.” The A&T decisions are “not about us” as a brand or conference. Hopefully the MEAC will survive as a conference or moth into another viable HBCU entity. But isn’t this what happens to traditional black programs? They develop the “Deon Sanders ego” and seek to operate on the big stage. If bigger is best, why don’t we close all of the state HBCUs and enroll at UNC, NC State, East Carolina and UNCC? Are we seeking to be like them? No. We don’t believe that it would be in our best interest. We know the history, the discrimination, the alienation, trials and tribulations. We know it is best for us to have our own thing, do our own thing. That’s the history and tradition of HBCUs.
Evolve or Die. The MEAC wasn’t trying to push the sport. It wasn’t doing what they needed to do to push the brand. The cost to run a football program isn’t all that different from being at the FBS or FCS level, but if you can’t bring in more money then what? There needs to be more aspirations than just playing in various classics, the Celebration bowls, and being a opening act for just a band. The Black college culture is the culture. What about getting your program better? Building better facilities to attract better recruits? Raising money to bring in better transfers? Getting to the point where you can actually compete for national championships? What about getting enough money so that you can field other sports to give other athletes the opportunity to compete and represent their schools. If you look at the MEAC they basically only sponsor football, basketball, soft ball, volleyball and track. They added sports like bowling to meet title IX requirements and because it was cheap. (No facilities to support) The MEAC’s entire business plan was to have “name” schools with “name bands” play each other so they could make a little money during homecoming week. There has never been a push to figure out how to make the programs more money, increase the media deals, or compete in the post season. They were okay with getting homecoming crowds and having half the stadium empty out after halftime after the band performed.
Article is spot on.