This year’s South Carolina State/North Carolina Central football game is expected to determine the winner of the MEAC and be one of the must-see HBCU football games of the season.
The game already achieves the desired hype thanks to two personable coaches (South Carolina State’s Chennis Berry and Trei Oliver of North Carolina Central), talented squads, and devoted fan bases cheering on two traditionally strong programs.
Well, as many as that will be able to get to O’Kelly-Riddick Stadium before kickoff this year.
ESPN announced late last week that the SCSU/Central game, initially scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 15, will now air Friday, Nov. 14, at the ungodly hour of 5 p.m. EST as a lead-in to Louisville/Clemson later that night.
The day and time change make everything more challenging for everyone; the teams will have one less day to prepare, South Carolina State will have to leave earlier than usual to beat traffic, students will likely be coming straight from class, and any alumni coming from near and far will likely miss the opening kickoff.
The social media counterargument for this logistical nightmare is what I now believe is a dirty word: exposure.
Merriam-Webster’s primary definition of “exposure” is “the condition of being presented to view or made known.” In this use of the word, yes, exposure is ESPN presenting the MEAC football product and/or making that product known.
But the overall use of the word has grown stale regarding how HBCU athletics get the short end of the scheduling stick when it comes to the Worldwide Leader. Exposure requires some return on investment at some point.
Aside from the Celebration Bowl, which, to be fair, is incredibly profitable and the best-case scenario, MEAC and SWAC games are always at the mercy of Power 4’s demands for an even larger chunk of the spotlight—and money—they already occupy.
Exposure at this point has not magically grown our schools’ athletic resources. It has not had the effect many thought four- and five-star recruits announcing their “interest in attending” HBCUs would have.
It makes what the SWAC has done with creating SWAC TV and the emergence of other options (HBCUGo, Urban Edge/HBCU Plus) all the more critical; HBCUs need other broadcast and streaming options instead of the one they’ve relied on for 20 years, only for said main option to constantly place our institutions and athletic programs in compromising positions.
If you missed the news last week, ESPN acquired the NFL Network, giving the NFL a 10 percent stake in all media coverage. This is ominously bad from a free press perspective.
Now imagine if the NFL wants to put a game on where a MEAC or SWAC game would’ve been originally scheduled.
ESPN will flex our kids to Wednesday at noon just so the Jacksonville Jaguars and Indianapolis Colts can play a Thursday game that only people in those two cities care about.
That kind of exposure is something HBCU football can gladly do without.
