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How many different ways can we have this discussion?
Because this is how it's gonna go.
1. Somebody will say fugg the white schools. Why are we making them rich by allowing those our kids to go to those racists schools?
2. Somebody will say these blacks have been brainwashed to believe the white schools are better.
3. Somebody will say well, you know these coaches/schools are paying off these kids and families.
4. Somebody will say HBCU coaches are scared and don't try hard enough.
5. Somebody will say why would a kid go to an HBCU instead of a BCS school?
6. Somebody will say kids can go where they please.
And then there will be one circular argument.
No, because of the "Defeatist" Mentality. Bewildered and Panthro88 have preached about this constantly.
There is nothing wrong with going up and making yourself known to ANY prospect you want. A lot of people don't understand that you will NOT get every recruit you TARGET. You don't know who may want to come to play for your school until you TRY. Just put your name out there.
The person that wrote the article played at Howard. Howard is an easy sell based upon its location and things to do in the city (which is DC). I would die of excitement though at TX Southern. The whole Houston Area...oh boy.
But it's like I stated earlier, we have to at least try and kill the "Defeatist" Attitude.
There I was, a student who was receiving just as many high school academic honors as I was athletic, but these schools appeared to only be concerned about my interest in cultivating the latter
...
My son received a total of 18 D1 football scholarship offers, and over 100 academic scholarship offers. He signed with Big Ten school, University of Illinois, and to this day, never received a single communication from an HBCU, neither academically, nor athletically.
In order to kill the defeatist attitude, BH, one has to get rid of the sorry jokers who harbor the defeatist attitude and forever hide them from the public. Tim wrote a great article and naturally, just as we are, he's perplexed that many cannot see the forest due to the big red oak staring them squarely in the face.
Bottom line is that it all comes down to money, and private donations....making the program better. We can sit here and talk about what's wrong with our schools because I agree with all of your points. But it takes money to spruce up the weight rooms, make the stadiums nicer, avoid long bus trips and sorry uniforms. That has to be funded by someone other than the state and student fee hikes.
I'm not sure about a "defeatist attitude" that exists, but I can only speak for my school. But I do agree that there are some sorry coaches and sorry administrators out there who are not only creating an issue with recruiting, but also creating the problems we see on game day, and off the field as well (i.e., APR issues).
As far as recruting- I don't want to an HBCU coach putting too much time and money into kids who have offers from all over the SEC and Big 10, BUT 3-star, 4-star and 5-star recruits in your program's back yard should know that an HBCU would offer them a full ride if they were interested. A kid who just decommitted from Bama and commited to Auburn and just got offers from FL State and LSU- let's not waste money scheduling an in-home visit with him. Send him some mail and make a few phone calls and that's it....at lest until we can get a few high net worth donors like the larger programs have.
smhThat NFL Exposure really helped SWAC Players get stated. Howard U is major NFL Exposure terroritory. SWAC Teams played those MEAC Teams in those big cities/areas and got the NFL Exposure.
the kid we need to focus on is that kid who has one or 2 Sun Belt low level last place offers but that says FBS at the end of the day...the New Mexico States, ULMs, etc. dont move any football needles will hurt you at the last minute with a FBS dream when in reality you do better at a SWAC school with more excitement and in some cases, better facilities
Some. SU recruits some of the same players LSU recruits. SU was the first to offer Davin Goudcheaux. There was a article on here about it. He blew up and the rest is history.I skimmed over the article but don't have time to read it in it's entirety right now but does McNeese recruit the same players LSU recruits? Hell, what about ULM with LSU? Texas State have all UT-Austin recruits on their board?
Our fearless leaders can barely market and brand our schools correctly. Asking them to give individual attention to "1" athlete is asking way to much.
Must say JSU has been way better at marketing our school over the last 10 years. The opening of those other campus branches have worked out better than anyone could have planned. The Madison branch grows bigger every year. JSU IS STR8 KICKING TULANE ASS FOR STUDENTS.Agreed.
Most of our schools don't care to market to students anyway. I'll say this much, JSU and WSSU have been kicking most of our asses in that department. WSSU "gets it." But that's what happens when you have 60+ year olds in power, with power the #1 item on the agenda.
we do recruit them but not many will list their offers.....I've heard stories of how we shook so and so's hand, etc. but we cant tell the media who we recruit...some of these kids out there are recruited by so many people they dont know who and what is people will think no contact was made
no one would know the Kenny Guiton story unless he said it publicly
if it was only that easy....lol
there's a reason the high profile guys were recipients of "gifts" dating back to integration...hbcu's had a stronghold on those guys but the gifts got to large to waste time competing with and its still to this day
the kid we need to focus on is that kid who has one or 2 Sun Belt low level last place offers but that says FBS at the end of the day...the New Mexico States, ULMs, etc. dont move any football needles will hurt you at the last minute with a FBS dream when in reality you do better at a SWAC school with more excitement and in some cases, better facilities
Good blog, but it all comes down to money: Endowments... donations... boosters... sponsors... and yes, promotions. For all the good points he made, and all that bragging about his alma mater he did while raising his son, I just have to wonder if he put his money where his mouth was? I know he is in Howard's HOF, but how much did he give back financially? Was he on Howard's sidelines during off-weeks in the NFL like so many former FBS players do today? Did he go to ANY of Howard's games after graduating? Is he going to ANY of Howard's games today, this year, last year, two years ago?
I'm not saying he didn't or is not doing any of those things. I don't know, but he also didn't say. I wish he would have shed a little bit of light on the subject.
Now, what can HBCUs do better that would have a direct effect on all the money factors I listed above? Increase enrollment. I feel the majority of HBCUs don't try to continuously GROW, but only sustain. That's how deterioration sets in. We actually think we can be this juggernaut of athletics within D1 when most HBCUs are at <5,000 student enrollment. That's where a lot of the daily budgetary struggle comes from. We're competing against PWIs that have decent-to-great alumni backing, always looking to expand, community support, and enrollments of 10-50K. Do you know what you could do with that extra tuition money alone???
I've always said that AAMU should be at a minimum of 8K enrollment. We could reach our full potential on this level with that. I'm a true believer of your enrollment has a direct correlation on what athletic classification level you should be at. Truth be told, some HBCUs should drop down to D2, which better suits their size financially and competition.
Why are we so secretive with ish?!
Those were my thoughts when I was reading it too. We are quick to put down our schools, point out the shortcomings, say what the school should be doing, but what are we doing to help (other than talking about all that is wrong with our schools) ???Good blog, but it all comes down to money: Endowments... donations... boosters... sponsors... and yes, promotions. For all the good points he made, and all that bragging about his alma mater he did while raising his son, I just have to wonder if he put his money where his mouth was? I know he is in Howard's HOF, but how much did he give back financially? Was he on Howard's sidelines during off-weeks in the NFL like so many former FBS players do today? Did he go to ANY of Howard's games after graduating? Is he going to ANY of Howard's games today, this year, last year, two years ago?
I'm not saying he didn't or is not doing any of those things. I don't know, but he also didn't say. I wish he would have shed a little bit of light on the subject.