Sanders, social justice puts focus on HBCUS
Malcolm Magee needed a do-over. In 2018, Magee signed to play college football at Colorado State. The Collins, Mississippi, native chose the Rams over scholarship offers from other Group of Five schools such as Louisiana, Texas San Antonio, Florida Atlantic and Utah State. Those offers were Magee’s main focus, despite interest from FCS programs closer to home.
But two years into his college journey, Magee wasn’t happy. Alcorn State football coach Fred Mcnair noticed.
“I tried to recruit the kid out of high school,” Mcnair said. “When he got to really figure out about what the HBCU schools are all about and about this conference, he acknowledged that ‘Man, I should’ve came the first time.’ “
Magee entered the transfer portal, returned to Mississippi and enrolled at Alcorn State this offseason. The choice to transfer was partly about playing time and partly about his relationship with Mcnair. But it also was about the opportunity to represent a historically Black university.
“When I called (Mcnair), he already knew what it was and where my head was,” Magee told the Clarion Ledger. “I told him ‘I want to be in an HBCU around a coach that I trust.’ I feel like that HBCU experience is different. It’s way different than Colorado State. When I thought about it, I thought long on it, it was something that I had planned out.”
The trend
Now, more than ever, high-profile recruits are considering signing with HBCUS.
The trend is more established in basketball. Five-star center Makur Maker signed with Howard last summer over offers from UCLA, Kentucky and Memphis. Five-star guard Mikey Williams, a 2023 prospect, included HBCUS Tennessee State, Texas Southern and Alabama State among his top 10 schools, along with high-majors such as Kansas and Southern Cal.
Maker and Williams mentioned social justice causes and the power young Black athletes now have to change societal perceptions as reasons for their choices.
Football programs have noticed a similar trend bubble up. And it has been magnified by the tidal wave of attention brought to the Southwestern Athletic Conference from the hiring of NFL Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders as the coach at Jackson State.
“It’s not about coming to an HBCU. It’s been about coming to play for us,” Sanders said. “Coming to this program to do something that hadn’t been done. It takes a kid with courage, a kid that’s confident, a kid that’s progressive, a kid that’s a forward thinker who’s willing to do this.”
Sanders’ first recruiting class at Jackson State was historic by program standards. The Tigers signed or received commitments from three four-star recruits and four three-star recruits, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. Sanders also received commitments from 10 transfers who were ranked as three-star or four-star recruits in high school.
Sanders was quick to distance what he’s doing in recruiting from national and social justice trends. In his mind, it’s about signing players who want to make it to the NFL and want to use Sanders’ knowledge and NFL experience as a trampoline into the stratosphere.
But as much as Sanders doesn’t believe kids are coming to Jackson State as a symbol, some of his players have indicated the opposite. Florida State transfer Isaiah Bolden told the Clarion Ledger in November that issues of racial and social justice were a major motivator in his decision to transfer to Jackson State.
“The world we live in, there’s still problems going on with racism and other conflicts,” Bolden said. “Seeing the view of everything, even with the NBA bubble, they did their movement and stopped playing games. Us athletes, we know we have a bigger platform than we ever had before. I feel like me using my platform to make a change is the main thing I can do.”
Many SWAC players and coaches feel the way Bolden does. A number of schools lean on the advantages of recruiting Black athletes to play at predominantly Black schools.
There are programs such as Grambling State, which signed three-star quarterback Noah Bodden from New York. Grambling coach Broderick Fobbs thinks the social justice movement has been a huge reason why recruits such as Bodden are considering Grambling more than in past years.
“I think the most important thing is how you treat people,” Fobbs said. “I think our kids are starting to realize that how you’re treated is important. Of course, there are certain universities that have facilities and have all these things. But at the end of the day, are you happy with how you’re being treated? I think that’s something that all of us do at our level, but especially in this particular conference. We understand how to treat young people.”
The growth of the SWAC
The SWAC is no stranger to superstars. NFL greats such as Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Mel Blount, Steve Mcnair and John Stallworth played at SWAC schools.
But the talent pool has dried in recent years. Only seven players from the SWAC were drafted into the NFL in the past 10 drafts. When Alabama State tackle Tytus Howard was picked in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft, he became the first SWAC player picked that high since 2000.
In 2019, USA Today namedthe 100 greatest HBCU players in NFL history. Only 10 entered the league after 2000. And only two — Arkansas Pine-bluff alum Terron Armstead and North Carolina A&T product Tarik Cohen — entered the league in the past 10 years.
SWAC commissioner Charles Mcclellan sees the talent infusion as a way to expand the league’s footprint. Sure, the SWAC leads the FCS in attendance nearly every year. But the league doesn’t have much of a television presence and, beyond the Celebration Bowl, doesn’t participate in postseason tournaments that could help increase exposure. High-caliber recruits change that. “We have an ESPN partner that we are now in talks with trying to expand our footprint and expand more linear
games as well as putting more games on the digital platforms,” Mcclellan said. “How does the SWAC negotiate with ESPN and other partners to do that? By what’s going on now. High-profile student-athletes that are coming in that are expanding the overall brand.”
Jackson State is bringing in this type of talent. Grambling State, Alabama A&M and Texas Southern signed highly rated prospects in the most recent cycle. The same is true for HBCUS in the Mideastern Athletic Conference such as Howard, Delaware State and Florida A&M, which will join the SWAC in the fall .
The uphill climb
This trend doesn’t mean the SWAC is ready to recruit against major programs.
“There’s going to be a push, but I still think at the end of the day the best players are going to go to the best programs,” ESPN recruiting and college football analyst Tom Luginbill told the Clarion Ledger. “If anybody thinks that Jackson State or Eastern Kentucky or Eastern Illinois
or whoever it is is going to go and beat Clemson and Alabama on a kid, I think they are misguided in that vision.”
Luginbill acknowledged certain SWAC schools might have certain advantages.
Playing a season this spring when FBS schools aren’t playing will give the SWAC exposure unlike ever before. Second-chance transfer players are more likely to play at the FCS level if they see it as a viable route to the pros. And schools in Louisiana and Mississippi have access to small-town, oft-missed recruits who don’t get attention from Power 5 schools because of how remote their schools are.
And yet, if it seems like there’s no equity between Power Five schools and the HBCUS in the FCS, that’s because there isn’t. SWAC schools have worse resources, worse equipment, worse facilities and worse exposure.
That’s why the social justice movement, along with Sanders, might be an ace in the hole for these schools. HBCUS have long been viewed as a haven for young Black students who might otherwise encounter discrimination at predominantly white institutions.
“Sports, even way back in the day, has been that bridge to bring everyone together,” said Alabama State coach Donald Hill-eley. “HBCUS have been more welcoming than a lot of the PWIS have ever been when it comes to the inequalities in the country and discrimination.”
Still, Magee, the Colorado State transfer who is now at Alcorn State, is one of the players trying to take advantage of that lifestyle.
“There’s real dogs in the HBCUS,” Magee said. “There’s real ballplayers who didn’t have the chance because of their height or their size or their grades. But I feel like those HBCUS, they’ve got a lot of eyes on it right now. I’m trying to get in the league someday. I feel like this is the step forward.
“We don’t really have the funds or the big-time facilities or the coaches who have been in the league for 14-15 years. But in my eyes, we’re just now getting started. This is our time for the SWAC to be something special.”
Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.