A few weeks ago former ESPN personality Jemele Hill wrote an article in the Atlantic saying that it’s time for our best black players to start going to HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) instead of continuing to go to the predominently white institutions. The logic was that if the best players were to start showing up at places like Morehouse, Jackson State, Howard etc. that the money would follow and those institutions would benefit greatly. Chris Broussard said the same thing on an Intagram post about a month ago when he snapped about the NCAA trying to implement the #RichPaulRule.
Like I said when Broussard jumped off of the roof into the deep end without a life jacket. I’ve got to say the same with Jemele’s article. It all sounds good and it gets people fired up but it’s ridiculous to believe that a kid that can actually play at Alabama is going to bypass that opportunity to play at Alabama State. If anybody should know that it should be two sports writers that have been all over the country and have visited big time programs to know the difference. It all sounds good but it makes no practical sense for a kid to bypass an opportunity to play big time sports if he has the opportunity.
Now don’t get it twisted, this has absolutely nothing to do with academics. It has EVERYTHING to do with sports. I’m 100 percent in favor of our kids going to HBCU’s for the academic advantage of being nurtured and loved by folks that really care about their futures. Both of my parents went to Texas Southern in the 1950’s when blacks couldn’t go to PWI’s (predominantly white institutions). My dad couldn’t go to the University of Texas to play football at the time because he was black. Both my wife and son are proud graduates of Jackson State University. So I’m not blasting the greatness of the HBCU. The best of the best of our black professionals many times come from our HBCU’s.
Did you know that 60 percent of black engineers, 50 percent of black teachers, 40 percent of black health professionals and 70 percent of all black dentists and physicians earn degrees from HBCU’s. So I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go to these great schools. What I am saying is that it’s crazy to tell a kid that has the opportunity to play at the highest level collegiately not to go to the schools that give him the best opportunity to train in the best conditions and play in front of a larger audience with 100 times more perks.
That’s what we’re asking our students to do academically right? If you’ve got kid with a 4.0 GPA you’re not sending him to the worst schools academically that don’t even have computer labs. You’re sending the kid to the best schools academically right? If the HBCU gives you a better chance of getting the best jobs then you go right? Don’t get it twisted, when the major corporations show up to recruit their minority candidates. Where do you think they go first? The HBCU. By the time they show up at places like Indiana or Purdue they aren’t nessecarily looking for us. So that’s a huge advantage of going to the HBCU.
However, there are huge advantages of going to big time schools if you are a major prospect coming out of high school. So why not send the kid that has proven himself worthy of playing at the highest level to the best football schools?
Sure, they all should be trying to get a degree. However, not everybody puts those priorities in the same order and black folks are earning degrees and the big schools too. My siblings and I have some from Indiana University. A 5-Star athlete still wants to play at the highest level possible. So why on earth would you tell him that he shouldn’t if you’re not telling a kid that can go to the IVY League to study on a full ride to go to community college. That’s how crazy you sound suggesting that a kid should bypass Bama and go to Alabama State.
When a kid has worked his entire life and earned the right to play at the highest level collegiately then he should be able to do it because everybody wasn’t blessed with the DNA to do it. It sounds crazy to look a five-star football player in the face and tell him to go play high school football all over again. When you look at the facilities at the black schools they are at best, high school programs. That isn’t a knock, it’s just what it is.
The kid with the opportunity is not about to go to the HBCU to play when he can PLAY in front of 95K-105K fans on Saturday that are actually coming to see the football game and not the band. Granted Denzel Washington’s son did but he was already rich and it didn’t matter to him. But you’re asking the average kid to bypass the opportunity to train in a $400 million facility with all of the bells and whistles to enhance his playing career to play at schools that don’t even have a decent locker room or training room. It makes no sense. Again, that horse has already left the barn.
Yes, and I know that these guys are saying that if the players would start going to the HBCU the money would follow but who’s going to make that jump into the deep end to start a movement? Unfortunately, once the gun has been shot you can’t get the bullets back. Like I said before, that horse left the barn 50 years ago.
Once desegregation occurred and players started going to the big schools the flood gates were opened and you can’t close them now. It’s like asking a kid to pick the Ford Festiva over the Lamborgini. Again, this has nothing to do with academics.
Have you been to places like Oregon, Alabama, Oklahoma, LSU etc. and actually put your eyes on the football programs? It’s NUTS! They’ve got barber shops, bowling alleys, juice bars and video games consoles at these kid’s lockers. The players are eating steak, lobster and crab at training table daily.
LSU just spent $28 million on their locker room alone!!! The locker room bruh!!!! However, you’re asking a 17 year old to bypass that and go to a school that may not be able to give them a pair of free sneakers and a warm up. That’s not realistic. It sounds good but in practice it’s crazy.
Some of our best athletes come from the worse conditions. So you’re asking a kid that grew up in the muck in the south or in the projects in the north that has shared a bed with his three other siblings his entire life to bypass the opportunity to sleep in a queen sized bed by himself and have his own room? That’s what you’re saying? That same kid can now wear a different pair of sneakers everyday for the next four or five years and get hundred hand shakes to send money back home to Big Momma. So you want him to pass that up? Stop thinking like a 40 year old and think for one minute like a 17 year because that’s who’s making the decision.
I’m 52 and I wouldn’t make the decision to turn Georgia down to play at Clark. Not if I’m an All-Amercan Top 100 recruit. Now if the only offers I had were to Martin University and Clark I would go to Clark all day. It’s a no brainer. However, a kid with offers to Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Clemson would be crazy to go to Howard to play football if he could play at those other schools. The key word here is PLAY. Now there are kids that eventually show up at Howard or Southern that went to LSU or Georgia. However, they weren’t playing at those schools. Nobody is leaving a big time program to play at a small school voluntarily. It makes no sense.
Some of these kids playing at the major programs are now living better than they’ve ever lived in their life but you want them to turn that down? It doesn’t make sense.
Everybody keeps saying that “IF” this movement can happen the money would follow. First of all, it’s not going to happen so let’s put that on the table and leave it there. However, let’s just play with the idea that some kids decides to do it. Sure, the TV revenue would eventually switch over to highlight the best players. However, the fan bases won’t move an inch because it’s college football. The 100,000 fans at Alabama aren’t switching their allegiance over to Alabama State. The fans down at Georgia “Between the Hedges” aren’t going to start supporting Morehouse or Clark. Why? Because it’s not who they’re affiliated with.
The alumni at LSU aren’t going to start sending money to Southern. These big time schools get a lot of their bread from the boosters. The boosters are the ones that really run the programs. They aren’t going to start supporting a school that they’ve never attended or had a relationship with. You sound crazy thinking that the money will follow.
T. Boone Pickens isn’t going to put $500 million into Langston University just because the best black players start going there. His affiliation is with Oklahoma State. So his money is going to continue to go there.
So to tell the story that the money will follow is only telling a half truth. Sure, the TV revenue and merchandising sells will go through the roof but the boosters are still going to support the schools they went to or are affiliated with. The 100k fans at the Swamp (University of Florida) aren’t going to start cheering for Florida A&M. You do realize that this is still America right? Stop me when I start lyin’!