HBCUS work together on NIL, sports growth
When Jacqie Mcwilliams sat at a table with other college sports leaders three years ago to discuss name, image and likeness, she thought about what the life-changing legislation would look like for historically Black colleges and universities.
With less government funding and fewer resources than Power Five schools, historically Black schools have a harder time recruiting top athletes. NIL, with little uniformity in how it is enforced across states, schools and regions, has widened that gap.
So, the commissioners of the four major HBCU conferences — the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), Mideastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) — recently agreed to work more closely together in partnering with professional sports leagues including the NBA and NFL to increase the value of HBCUS and send more athletes to the pros.
“We are doing it in collaboration knowing that we have strength as a collective,” said SIAC Commissioner Anthony Holloman. “We know when we play our conferences, compete, it’s a game, but on all other days we are rooting for each other.”
Mcwilliams, who is in her 10th year as commissioner of the CIAA, a league composed of 12 HBCUS in Division II, has seen NIL make way for schools to help student athletes turn their creativity into money.
The Gulf Coast Athletic conference (GCAC), an HBCU league in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, partnered with the NIL marketing company Athlyt and the media company Urban Edge network to create NIL deals for student athletes.
“That’s helping us to now enhance a lot of things, our conference operations,” said GCAC Commissioner Dr. Kiki Barnes, “and what we’re able to do for our student athletes.”
They’re now finding those opportunities amid the backdrop of unprecedented attention for HBCUS.
Men’s basketball athletes from HBCUS Texas Southern and Howard will compete on the NCAA’S national stage this week.
The Tigers, who won the SWAC’S conference tournament, will face Fairleigh Dickinson in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament Wednesday evening, with the winner advancing to face No. 1 seeded Purdue in the first round. Howard, winner of the MEAC conference tournament, will take on another No. 1 seed in Kansas on Thursday. Norfolk State’s women’s basketball team defeated Howard in the MEAC conference tournament to advance and face overall No. 1 South Carolina Friday.
Deion Sanders, now Colorado’s football coach, helped fuel a resurgence of HBCU popularity when he was at Jackson State University in Mississippi.
Dr. J. Kenyatta Cavil, a professor at Texas Southern who focuses on HBCU athletics, said Sanders’ star power, coupled with the racial reckoning following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, allowed more resources to pour into Black schools.