CIAA Eliminates Divisions in Football


Kim Spears

Kim Spears

Grambling '93
From the Richmond Free Press......

There will be no more Northern and Southern Divisions of the CIAA. Starting this season, all 11 football-playing members will be grouped in the same standings.

The top two, regardless of location, will meet in Salem for the CIAA crown. This marks the final year of the CIAA’s contract with Salem.
 

Click here to visit HBCUSportsShop
CIAA-FAN said:
NOT SURE I FULLY UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS CHANGE? ANY COMMENTS?😨
Click to expand...
The only thing I see is because the divisions are uneven now. Since St. Aug isn't playing this season, it puts the South division down to 5 teams. But I also heard rumors all last season that they were headed in that direction to begin with. Not sure if it will go back to divisions once they add another school to even things back to twelve team. Now that's another subject: who will they go after to add to the conference? Any suggestions?
 
YOU ARE PROBABLY CORRECT. I HAD ALREADY FORGOTTEN ABOUT ST. AUG SITTING OUT THIS YEAR. I WONDER IF THEY WILLREALLY TRY AND ADD ANOTHER TEAM, NEXT SEASON?
 
I honestly wouldn’t be upset if the SWAC adopted that format. Pretty much every conference in the country is adopting this format. The SIAC also eliminated divisions last year.

I wouldn’t my be surprised if it’s something that’s been discussed.
 
FAM4lyfe said:
I honestly wouldn’t be upset if the SWAC adopted that format. Pretty much every conference in the country is adopting this format. The SIAC also eliminated divisions last year.

I wouldn’t my be surprised if it’s something that’s been discussed.
Click to expand...
It just makes sense when you want to make sure your best two teams go to the post season regardless. Kinda like if Southern and Grambling were the best two teams come the end of the season.
 
This is how the SIAC was before going to East--West division. This was prior to several schools, Central State, Edward Waters, Paine College [who onlly did football 1 year] and Stillman College [who brought back football for a couple of years and then get rid of it again] being added to the SIAC.
 
CIAA-FAN said:
NOT SURE I FULLY UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS CHANGE? ANY COMMENTS?😨
Click to expand...
This is not the first time the CIAA has done this, as previously they made the same change a decade or two ago, but changed back after 3 years. What this means is that the two top teams will play in the championship rather than just the two division winners. Divisions were setup, in part, to act as self contain travel groups.

I don't think the CIAA will be in a rush to add another school that has football. I think they are going to wait and see how the St. Aug situation plays out. It will be interesting to see if Clafin would sponsor football again at some point. I think they would need to make sure it does not negatively effect the school, like bringing back football for St. Paul and St, Aug did.

Outside of that the two other former CIAA schools in North Carolina have not been operational for some time. Barber Scotia and Kittrell.
 
Last edited:
Kim Spears said:
The only thing I see is because the divisions are uneven now. Since St. Aug isn't playing this season, it puts the South division down to 5 teams. But I also heard rumors all last season that they were headed in that direction to begin with. Not sure if it will go back to divisions once they add another school to even things back to twelve team. Now that's another subject: who will they go after to add to the conference? Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
I think part of the problem was certain schools started to question the divisions because the two top teams in the conference were not always each division champions.

West Virginia State University (already D2) and University of District of Columbia (not sure if they are D2 anymore and they don't have football). The other option would be to get a team from the SIAC that is in or above South Carolina in order to fit into the CIAA footprint.

Both WVSU and DC were members of the CIAA at one point in time, since both are HBCUs. Just like Bluefield State, West Virginia State was taken out of the CIAA against the will of the student body and staff\faculty\administration due to take over of both schools by a racist state government, which implemented a plan to drive out all the black people.

University of The District of Columbia - https://www.udc.edu/

West Virginia State University - https://wvstateu.edu/
 
Last edited:
Kim Spears said:
I really can't see who else they could go after.
Click to expand...
West Virginia State would be the prime target, but I don't know if they have a strong alumni base as Bluefied State though. While Bluefield State student population is majority white, there alumni association is majority black (made up of a majority of alumni from when the school was in the CIAA).

Outside of that, their only options inside of their footprint would be a South Carolina football school from the SIAC. Central State is in Ohio is outside of the CIAA traditional footprint. I still can't figure out how the SIAC and Central State made it work with travel given how far Ohio is to the other SIAC schools.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top